Love Through Negotiation
by gentlemankitsune
Summary: They all wondered how things were going to end. Hell, how it all began was still pretty unbelievable. Naruto Temari Kurotsuchi Yugito Fu Mei. a re-write of Never Use Shadow Clones to do your Paperwork
1. Chapter 1

**AN/ Hello, gent here. It's been a while since we last talked. To anyone who PM'd me, they know that I've been working on a book for the last 5 or so months. More on that at the end.**

 **I've decided to re-do my first attempt at prose 'Never Use Shadow Clones to do your Paperwork', but if I do everything note-for-note, then I'll blow my brains out, so I've changed some things. Well, a lot of things. Mainly, this is Post-timeskip, and I've reworked a few people's personalities a little bit.**

 **Hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 1

The room was silent and heavy with the air of disbelief. Everyone heard exactly what she said without any problems, but the ones who weren't privy to her previous negotiations couldn't believe their ears. It had to be a joke, the preamble of a longer, more saddening situation that needed to be lightened beforehand.

In front of her desk was a row of six people, the ones most affected by the negotiations. And behind them were their heads of state minus two. The ones in front were Kurotsuchi of Rock, Yugito of Cloud, Fu of Waterfall, Naruto of Leaf, Mei of Mist, and Temari of Sand. Behind them were Onoki, Ai, Shibuki, and Gaara.

Kurotsuchi was the first one to break. "This is a joke, right?" she asked dangerously with a smile on her face. The smile showed her teeth in a most unnatural way. It was a smile that just screamed 'this better be a joke, or I'm clawing someone's throat out'.

Tsunade smiled back, though hers was real and triumphant. "Absolutely not. Welcome to the most influential political marriage of all time."

Yugito's jaw was rapidly clenching and unclenching. Despite her faith in her poker face and dutiful loyalty to her leadership, there were things that couldn't be allowed for. She wouldn't overtly speak out at the meeting, but a quick glance to Ai was all she needed to do to get the fact across that she didn't find it acceptable in the slightest and that there would be a follow-up.

Maybe even a refusal to do her job.

Fu looked shocked, but didn't share in the righteous indignation of the rest. It was unexpected, to be sure, but she was so used to talks in which she gave up at the very idea of friendship or voluntarily exiled herself into the forest, that the realization that she had a husband instead of a suicide mission was enough for her to not speak out at it.

Mei looked… well, it was always hard to tell what she was thinking through her face. She had a smile that looked genuine enough, but anyone who knew her knew that that was a mask of sorts. Anyone who knew her well, knew that the mask wasn't necessarily bad. Some wore masks to hide their pain and sorrow. She wore a mask to do everything from hiding her intent to kill someone, all the way to playfully teasing her subordinates.

Temari didn't know what to think. Her immediate thought was that of a certain lazy Nara who… well, they weren't dating. And it wasn't like she was crushing particularly hard on him. But still. She glanced at her 'husband'. Absolutely not. No way. This couldn't work out. She wouldn't allow it to.

Kurotsuchi was already turned around in her seat and yelling at her grandpa, the Third Tsuchikage. His face was steely and cold. He rebuked all of her efforts in denial by the simple order of "Kurotsuchi, sit down, and stop talking."

Kurotsuchi's mouth closed before her brain told it to. Her gramps was a stubborn old fool, but there was a reason why he was considered the strongest ninja in the village, not to mention his storied experience. He wasn't a man to upset when he got serious.

She settled for crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her 'husband' out of the corner of her eye.

Tsunade raised a single brow. She'd expected the groom to be the one who was most vocal. Perhaps that was just the result of his training with Jiraiya, but his face made her feel that was false. He was just staring at her desk with wide eyes and a frown marring his face. When he looked up and saw her questioning gaze, he didn't know what to say.

"Th-This is a joke, right?" he asked, reiterating Kurotsuchi's previous question. "This can't be real."

It wasn't quite accurate to say that she enjoyed seeing him like that, but he was long overdue for a reality check. Her face softened for him. "It's a long story. We'll-"

"Like fucking hell it's a long story!" Kurotsuchi shouted. "I don't know where you get off-"

"Kurotsuchi!" Onoki barked out. Her nose flared in anger, but she was cowed back to silence.

Tsunade waited for a beat or two to continue on. "Like I was saying: it's a long story, but the gist of it is that while doing paperwork, the Fourth Hokage split his duties among various shadow clones. We theorize, but do not know, that the four marriage contracts came to him in this time, and he didn't double check his memories for any discrepancies."

Fu looked over everyone and did a quick head count. "I count five."

Mei leaned over to meet her gaze. "I heard what was going on and put my hat into the ring too. I hope you don't mind." It was clear through her tone of voice that she didn't really care whether they minded or not.

Naruto squinted his eyes. His nose crinkled up. "But why me?! I still don't understand even a little bit of what's going on! I just got back to Konoha this day. I haven't even been home yet."

Tsunade was somewhat expecting this and already had an answer cocked. "Naruto, for what purpose do arranged marriages hold in the elemental nations?"

He shrugged. "To… strengthen bonds? Smaller countries do it all the time. To make alliances and stuff, right?"

Tsunade nodded. "And how many different headbands do you see in the room right now?"

Naruto checked around himself a few times. "Five."

"And how many girls- er, women do you see next to you."

Naruto didn't have to check around himself again. "Five…"

Tsunade splayed her hands out. "Do you see where we're going with this?"

Naruto's face scrunched up again, though this time it was in thought. "You… want to… make an alliance with the other five countries. Still though! Why does this-" he gesticulated around the room. "Have to happen this way? Why can't we just all sign a paper or something?"

"Yeah," Kurotsuchi piped up. "This is stupid. We could just sign another treaty like all the others."

Tsunade looked at her with an upturned brow. "And how did all those other treaties pan out?"

Kurotsuchi opened her mouth, but after a few uttered syllables, closed it.

"But why me?" Naruto continued on. "Why us?"

Tsunade swept a hand to the six situated in front of her. "We have an elite jonin, Jinchuuriki of the two-tails, and step-niece-in-law of the current Raikage; The Jinchuuriki, and only one of two strong military assets of the Hidden Waterfall; the sister to the Kazekage; leader of the Hidden Mist and carrier of two kekkai genkai; and granddaughter of the current Tsuchikage, who is also the holder of a kekkai genkai. All these people are influential and important figures to the people of their respective five countries."

Naruto paused and looked at the five more carefully. How could so many people that are so important be there? Two of them were Jinchuuriki no less.

"B-But… But I like Sakura."

Tsunade's face softened some more. "Naruto, a Hokage has a duty to the citizenry before she has a duty to her friends and family. I have not made this decision lightly. It is, however, for the good of the people. And not just our people. For all people. You could be instrumental to peace on this continent."

Naruto bit his bottom lip and sunk back down to his seat.

"I just want to say," Temari proffered "That this is a terrible plan."

That piqued Tsunade's interest. "Oh?"

Temari, with wide eyes, looked at all the people in the room. "You do realize that we're all shinobi, right? You know, people who kill, lie, and cheat for a living. We're also a people with deep-seated grudges and hatreds for each other. Historically, we're the kind of people who prefer the easy way out, the killy way out. Even if by some miracle, we don't manage to kill each other, there are others that will absolutely take advantage of this situation to turn us against ourselves. And, I have to stress, the likeliness of us not killing each other is really low." Temari pointed to Kurotsuchi and Yugito in turn. "Look at them!"

Kurotsuchi turned to glare at the sand mistress. Sure, she hated the situation more than anyone, but she hated being looked down on even more. Yugito didn't even react. She was too busy going over in her head how she was going to tell off Ai and the exact way in which she would threaten to leave if he went through with it.

Tsunade looked down on Temari. "And you wouldn't risk it? Sure, I have no real idea that any of you don't have ulterior motives," she turned her gaze to the four heads of state behind the now harem "but if there's even a one percent chance of this working, don't you want to try it out? Hunger, gone. Military engagements, gone. Inordinate suffering, gone. If we could put less money into figuring out ways to kill each other, we could put that money into things like infrastructure, and mass education, and a focus on technological developments. Us heads of state are already planning a way to pool our resources in a way that could develop our poor regions. This could change the world."

"Regardless," Mei said with her smile not slacking in the slightest. "The contracts have already been signed. There's nothing any of us can do about this now."

"And what the hell do you get out of this?" Kurotsuchi fired off.

Mei turned her head to the girl. "Excuse me?"

"You 'threw your hat in the ring'. You're doing this of your own free will. Why?"

On the outside, her expression didn't change, but there was an edge now present in her voice. "My people just went through a very long, bloody, and brutal civil war. We want nothing more than peace and a future where blood doesn't have to be shed."

"Is that so? Because I'm pretty sure the Hidden Mist is flat broke right now. Are you sure this isn't about any of those pooled resources you're in need of?"

"I don't see the connection."

"Well I don't intend to whore myself out, even if it's 'for the people'."

"If you don't shut your mouth, I'll melt you with your own guts-"

"Do you see this?" Temari asked, hands wringing her hair. "We're already at each other's throats!"

"Silence!" Tsunade shouted. The room fell into an unnatural end. The annoyance that had been percolating behind in her gut finally came out full force. "Yes, you're right. This may very well be the worst idea in the history of the shinobi world. You're right. I can't trust any of you to not kill each other. You're right. I'm sure there are ulterior motives abound here. But get this through all your brains right now: this is happening. It's happening right now and right here. You better get used to it!"

Yugito was still stewing in thought, Fu was trying to make herself smaller, Naruto was still in shock, Kurotsuchi looked like she wanted to explode, Temari was annoyed, and Mei… well, it was always hard to tell what she was thinking.

"Shizune!"

Shizune poked her head through the door. "Is it all over?"

Tsunade gripped the bridge of her nose, trying to stem the oncoming headache. "Show them all to where they'll be staying."

Yugito stood up, practically knocking the chair back from the force. She said "I'll figure it out," before dashing out one of the open windows.

Ai sighed into the palm of his hand, said "Don't worry. I'll hold up my end of the bargain," and jumped out the same window, accidentally tearing through its borders and shattering the nearby ones that were open.

The headache got more intense.

"I need to breathe," Temari said, twirling out her fan and jumping out the window.

Gaara didn't look very surprised. "I'll hold it up too," he said, following her out the window.

The headache was starting to hurt.

"Fuck this!" Kurotsuchi said before shooting out the window.

Onoki grumbled something indistinctly as he went after her, but it probably had something to do with him holding up the bargain as well.

The headache began gripping her skull.

Naruto stood up. "I need to… I just need to go." The normally boisterous and energetic lad slunk out of the room past a sorry faced Shizune.

"And I," Mei said "Need to go to the little girl's room. Don't wait up." The Mizukage stood up and walked past Shizune as well, going the opposite direction Naruto went.

Fu looked at Shizune, who was doing her best to make herself look small. "Well, I guess it's just the two of us, huh?"

Shizune smiled nervously and nodded. "Yeah."

The seven tailed Jinchuuriki stood up and went to follow Shizune out of the room.

Tsunade sighed and sat back down in her seat. The deep throbbing in her head was starting to die down a little bit-

The door crashed back open with a red-faced Jiraiya breathing heavily. "What's this I hear about a political marriage?! What the hell were you thinking?"

And the headache came back full force.

 **AN/ So hey, here are some important things:**

 **1.)** **I will be writing both this and my next book concurrently. The book takes precedence, so don't expect much in way of frequent updates with huge word counts.**

 **2.)** **I'm going to be writing this with character development and interpersonal relationships in mind more than fight scenes. I'll try to be comedic when I can and when it suits the story, but it will have an overall more serious vibe.**

 **3.)** **Give me some ideas of names for this fic. I'm not personally attached to 'Five Signatures', since that's not even accurate to the story. And I don't want something that riffs off 'Never Use Shadow Clones to do your Paperwork'. I'll mention you and any honorable mentions in the next chapter if you come up with a good one.**

 **4.)** **Ages as are in canon.**

 **The book that I've written that's currently out is called 'A Most Beautiful Shade of Red'. It's about a guy who wakes up in a room full of desiccated corpse remains with no idea as to how he got there and has to find a way to survive the perils that face him after he exits and make it back home in (hopefully) one piece. It's on kindle. Most things have a kindle app. Hell, my windows phone has a kindle app and windows phones have a 2% market share in the mobile phone area.**

 **I'm not much for shilling my stuff, so this is probably all you're going to hear about it (unless you do want to hear about it, in which case you should let me know in a PM or a review). Check it out and buy it if you like it. It's only $3. Or its free if you have kindle unlimited.**

 **I guess that's it. Chapters probably won't be this short, but don't expect much.**


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2

Yugito was waiting on the rooftop of a medium-sized building. The sun was just starting to set on the hidden leaf and she got a pretty good view of it happening. It didn't have anything on Cloud, which had a setting sun turn a blank swath of white cloud into a toiling ocean of orange-pink radiance. Leaf had trees, though. She liked them. They were a plus.

A heavy impact hit the roof behind her. She knew it was the Raikage just as a child would know a parents' footsteps. Although it would be quite a stretch to call him a father figure, he was a constant in her life. One of the few

Yugito turned around to him as slowly as she could. A heavy frown marred her face. "What were you thinking?" she spat out.

His face was steely. He normally wasn't like that. Whenever someone refused his orders or insulted him without reason, he was more likely to get into a shouting match, which would very likely end up with the opposing party with a few smashed ribs, rather than the detached veneer of someone disinterested in another's plight. "I made the decision almost seventeen years ago. I did what I thought I had to do for the good of Kumo." His voice was moderate and reasoned, a far cry from the usual.

"Regardless, you can offer someone else up for the job, because I'm not doing it."

"Yugito-"

"Nope! I refuse!" Yugito snarled out. "I have been a loyal ninja to Kumo for as long as I have lived. And for what? My childhood, ruined. My adolescence, ruined. Christ, things have only just started to get better for me. And you want to do this? I've trained until everything hurt. I've born the hatred of the village. I've lied, killed, and stole for the good of the village and this is how you repay me? By just shucking me away like a useless noble with a penchant for linen rather than steel? No, I refuse."

Ai didn't do anything for a very long time, and when he did, it shocked Yugito to the core.

He got down to his knees, touched his forehead to the cold, dirty ground, and said "I'm sorry."

Yugito stared at him with wide eyes. It was like watching a rabbit try to hunt a bear. Completely foreign, confusing, and somewhat pitiable to watch.

"News of the fourth hokage having a baby reached me at a time when my brother was just getting used to being a Jinchuuriki. In all honesty, I still didn't trust the demon containers. There were others available to the job, others that were more within the age range, but I wanted you gone. I thought I would have too much on my hands trying to get my brother to stay with me without having to worry about you as well. If it went well, we had an easy ally that took care of a problem Jinchuuriki and if it went bad, we had all the justification and rallying cry needed for war. This thinking was wrong, and I apologize."

Yugito gulped. It was difficult seeing him like that. "Rise," she said.

Ai got up from the ground and stared at her with the same steely expression as before.

Yugito pursed her lips and looked to the side. "So what's the plan then? Kill them all? Make it look like it was the one with the black hair?"

Ai walked up to her and planted a single hand on her shoulder. "I want you to try."

Yugito's brows furrowed in confusion. "What?"

Ai's eyes went half-lidded as he looked away at the sunset. "It's pretty, isn't it? Doesn't have anything on Kumo, but still, it's pretty."

Yugito followed his gaze. "What?" she repeated.

Ai sighed. "When I was younger, the only thing I wanted to do was to go to war. Expand our influence, and power, and bring stability to the world. Now, all I want is for peace. So no, I don't want you to kill anyone. I want you to try."

Yugito's face soured. "You really want me to get married? Play the wife? Play the happy woman who waves at the ninja of cloud." She shook her head. "No, I really d-"

"I don't want you to play," Ai said, cutting her off. "I don't want you to pretend to do anything. I want you to try. Earnestly. Really. With all your might, I want you to try." Ai paused for a bit to let what he said sink in, then said "I know you don't have any friends back in Kumo. Or any romantic prospects, or any real attachment to our home other than your sense of duty. If it doesn't work out, I'll try to convince the others that another choice would be better." Ai turned to look her in the eye "But if I find out you didn't try 100%, I'll demote you to a genin."

Yugito pursed her lips again. Matatabi had been strangely silent. She didn't know if the cat was asleep, or just formulating a deep and inquisitive response, but she really needed that cat's advice right about now.

She'd try. She owed Ai that much. Anything else was out of the question, however. She didn't do seduction missions and she didn't do 'prostitute missions'. Yugito was a proud ninja of the hidden cloud. She'd do her mission as it was assigned. No more, no less.

00000000

Gaara found his sister at the top branch of a tree overlooking Konoha. He floated up her and they stood, side-by-side, for a few minutes in complete and utter silence.

"I'm sorry," Gaara said finally, breaking the silence.

Temari sighed a deep sigh. "It's fine, I guess."

Gaara turned to look at his sister a bit more seriously. "You're taking this better than I thought you would."

Temari shrugged. "Everything's going to implode in on itself anyway. There's no way this could be sustainable. What upsets me the most is that you didn't even tell me beforehand."

Gaara looked down at his feet. "I just… because of me, everybody was scared of approaching you. Not everybody, that one fellow seemed nice, but…" Gaara trailed off. "You didn't have any friends or crushes or dates or anything else. All because of me. I drove everybody away from you and Kankuro."

Temari turned to look at her brother more seriously. "Wait… you're doing this because… you want me to date your best friend? Not going to lie, that's pretty twisted."

Gaara sighed. "Father was the one who signed out the marriage contract in the first place. I got an eagle from Konoha saying that there were copies of not only yours, but three others in Konoha as well, and was invited to the negotiations. Granted, I could have refused, but… Naruto's… been through a lot. He's just like me, and you to a greater extent. I think you two would work well together. And I never really liked that Shikamaru."

Temari thought back to all her interactions with the blond haired Uzumaki. They weren't that favorable. He was brash and bold and didn't think things through. He ran into situations instead of evaluating them. He may have grown from a pipsqueak into rather well-built teenager, but the mind doesn't change so readily.

"I'll… stick with it until it explodes. Don't expect me to leap into harm's way to protect him or anything. As soon as shit gets tilted, I'm out."

"I…" Gaara closed his mouth. "Fair enough. Try to keep an open mind though. I think this could work out."

Temari huffed. "I doubt it."

00000000

Kurotsuchi didn't get very far before her grandfather flew behind her and tapped a finger between her shoulder blades. She fell to the floor with nary a grunt as the force of gravity on her body tripled over the course of half a second.

Once she was on the ground, she was huffing and puffing for air; the force of gravity on her chest made it a struggle to even expand her sternum. Onoki sighed and lifted his finger, releasing the gravity technique. Kurotsuchi pushed up from the ground and started heaping in great amounts of oxygen to her lungs. Once she was of full breath, she glared at her grandfather. "Why?"

"You know why."

"No. I don't. Konoha killed my mom, your daughter-in-law. I don't want shit to do with them if I can't help it. Then you go and marry me off to a fucking Jinchuuriki of the leaf. So if you have something in that infinite pile of Viagra and wisdom you call a brain, please enlighten me."

Onoki lighted on the ground. His full height was barely taller than her when she was on her ass. "Don't think I don't have my fair share of a grudge against Konoha. If you can't recall, I was in every single shinobi war and in every single one of them, we were pitted against each other. I've killed my fair share of leaves, and the leaves have killed their fair share of my friends and family."

"So why this? We should be thinking of ways to get rid of them for good! Is this marriage thing a ploy or something?"

Onoki's perpetual frown deepened until it looked like his face was split in two. "When I first signed that treaty, we were just out of another war. This one claimed your mother's life. By that time, I had already seen too many of my friends and family die. I don't want there to be another war. I don't want to lose you, or my son."

"But why can't it be someone else? You're not going to be the third for much longer. When you die, I'm just going to be the granddaughter of a dead guy."

"Everything will work out fine. Look, I'm not asking you fall in love with him, or bear his children, or to even like him. Just don't kill him. And you probably shouldn't try to piss him off either. You're right. He _is_ a Jinchuuriki, after all."

Kurotsuchi's frowned and looked off to the side. "Dad know about this?"

"I informed him, yes."

"You're not really giving me much of a choice in this. Fine, I won't kill him. The trees are a nice change of pace, after all. Might as well try to have fun." Kurotsuchi stood up and went to follow the secretary's chakra signature. She might have been overreacting before. It wasn't like the treaty was going to last. At worst, she would be kicking back in the hidden leaf for a year or so.

Before she went off after Shizune, she turned around and said one last thing. "Oh, and if he comes onto me, I'm gelding him. Just so you know."

00000000

Fu stepped trepidatiously into the doorway. The house was pretty big. Not exactly a mansion or anything, but there were enough bedrooms at least. Well, almost enough. Five rooms for six people. She wouldn't mind roughing it, though. A couch was always better than the bundle of leaves she called a mattress.

The house looked like no one had ever lived inside of it. Fu almost expected a real estate agent to poke a head through a door and greet her with a patently fake smile. Or, she would if she had a more whole understanding of the real estate market.

Shizune shifted nervously behind her. "It's part of a housing development in Konoha. No one ever bought it, so as long as you're in Konoha, it's your home."

Fu looked to her with a confused look on her face. "As long as I'm in Konoha? Doesn't it belong to me even when I'm out?"

"E-"

"Oh, sorry. Not like _mine_ mine. Like, partial ownership. I guess it would have to be a six-way split."

Shizune waited a beat to see if she would continue. "I don't… I don't understand the question."

Fu jumped onto the couch in the living room and tested its springiness. "Well, I am a member of your village now."

Shizune just looked even more confused. "I'm sorry?"

Fu looked around. "Is that not how it works? I know it doesn't happen that much, but people from different villages do marry every now and then. Turns into a whole thing. They get dual citizenship. Do I not get that too? Come to think of it, do I get multi-citizenship?"

"Y-You're right. I didn't think of that. I think the fine details of the treaty are being worked out right now, but I can't imagine you wouldn't get the same treatment as any other political marriage."

Fu went up the bookshelves on the living room and started skimming through the spines. "Did I say something wrong? Sorry, I don't talk to people much. I'm not the most social of animals. I can insult people without meaning to sometimes."

"Hm? No, no, of course not. Why do you say that?"

Fu turned around to look at her more fully. "Because you stutter a lot when you're talking to me. When I bring up difficult subjects, the tendons on your neck get really pronounced. Especially when I bring up my husband, you get particularly fidgety. Did I do something wrong?"

Shizune bit her lower lip and shifted her weight awkwardly from foot to foot. "I… Naruto's important to me and my master. I don't agree with her decision to continue on with this marriage thing against all of the wishes of the ones most directly involved. I don't want him to get hurt, and you're… well…"

"And I'm married to him now," Fu stated blankly.

Shizune cringed a little bit. "You can say that so glibly."

Fu looked around confusedly. "Well it is fact."

"You don't… You're okay with this? You're okay with being married to someone against your will?"

Fu shrugged. "Wouldn't be the worst thing that's ever happened to me. He seems… well, it was a little bit hard to get a read on him. He was pretty shaken up. But at least he doesn't seem like a _bad_ guy, you know?"

"He's… he's a very kind person. Once he decides you're important to him, he won't let go of you. He'll help you even it means getting a hand thrust through his chest, or standing up to a monster that he has no hope of beating."

Fu smiled. "That's great then. He sounds awesome! He looked kinda cool too." Fu nodded, more to herself than anything. "Yeah, this sounds fine."

Shizune faltered for a moment. "You're… okay with sharing him? With four other women?"

Fu shrugged. "Nothing's perfect. 'Sides, the other four didn't seem too fond of him. I guess that older one did, but she seemed a bit… aloof? Is that the right word? Eh, whatever."

Shizune sighed and looked down. At least this one didn't appear to be dangerous. She couldn't say the same for the older blonde and the younger raven-haired. She'd met Temari before and could say that she at least wasn't one to get riled up. As for Mei…

There was a knock at the door, bringing Shizune out of her mind. She berated herself in her head for being so lost in thought as to not notice the creeping chakra signature and went to answer the door.

Before she had a chance to answer it, the knob turned on its own and Yugito stepped inside with a disinterested gaze as she scanned the house. She turned to Shizune. "Is there a dojo in here, or do I have to go to a training ground to do my daily exercises?"

Shizune nodded quickly without missing a beat. Being nice to the visiting shinobi was important, after all. "Erm, yes, there is a small dojo in the house. Do you want me to show it to y-"

Yugito shook her head. "That will be fine. Where is my assigned room?"

"T-There are no assigned rooms. You and everyone else will just have figure it out amongst yourselves, I suppose."

One of the corners of her mouth tilted downwards. She had a feeling there was going to be a lot of arguing over those rooms. "I see."

"Hey!" Fu said excitedly as she ran up to the militaristic woman. "I'm Fu, it's nice to meet you." She thrust a hand forward, only enhancing her look of elation.

One of Yugito's eyebrows raised slowly. "I'm Yugito," she said, gingerly taking the younger girl's hand in her own, almost like she was handling something either dangerous or disgusting.

Fu leaned forward a little bit. "Yugito…"

Yugito was a bit confused. "What?"

Fu's head cocked to the side. "You don't have a last name?"

Yugito planted a single step backwards. That girl had no idea of what a personal space bubble was. "Yes, I do. It's Nii. It's only polite to offer your full name before expecting someone else to do the same, after all." There was an edge in her voice, clearly annoyed by the girl's social faux pas.

"But… I did. My name's Fu. Just Fu."

"Oh, is that a cultural trait of hidden waterfall, mononyms?"

"Nope."

Yugito waited a few seconds for Fu to elaborate on that, but when nothing came, nodded to herself, almost like she was expecting it, and started walking past her. "See you in the morning, I guess."

"Oh, wait, you're a Jinchuuriki, right?"

Yugito paused and looked down on the girl. "Yes, I am. I'm the host of the two tailed demon death cat."

"Huhh," Fu said with a small amount of wonder. "That's a pretty cool title. I've just got the seven tailed beetle. His name's Chomei. He's pretty cool."

Yugito looked the girl up and down a few times. The happy-go-lucky types never sat well with her. They were always too… unpredictable. "Right," Yugito said while nodding. "Matatabi's pretty cool too. Now, it's late and I want to-"

"Is this where I'm supposed to be?"

Yugito, Fu, and Shizune turned to look as Temari walked in through the door with a careful expression.

"Ah, guess it is. Where's my room?"

"We have to figure it out 'amongst ourselves'," Yugito said.

"Right…" Temari looked around. "Food?" she asked. "I haven't had anything to eat yet."

"The refrigerator is stocked," Shizune said.

"Great," Temari said hungrily, making a beeline to the larder.

Yugito was fine going to bed as she was, but if there was tasty food to be had, she had no excuse for not being a part of it. Fu just followed the two of them as they made their way to the fridge.

"I'm sure Tsunade needs me," Shizune said, making her way to the door. "Please don't do anything terrible to this house."

"Right," Temari said, only half listening as she opened the fridge.

Fu's face lit up like a Christmas tree when she beheld its contents. There was ham, chicken, eggs, beef, fruits and vegetables, sauces and condiments, and everything and anything she could never afford but had always wanted.

Temari clicked her tongue. "I guess it is a bit too much to ask for left-overs."

"What?!" Fu exclaimed boisterously. "How can you be upset by this? This is so awesome. There's, like, pig and cow and chicken and ketchup. Freaking ketchup! And there's a whole bottle of it!" Fu bolted forward, grabbed a hold of the leg of ham, and slapped it on the table behind them. "We're going to eat this."

"No," Yugito said, grabbing the meat just as quickly as it was out and putting it back in the refrigerator. "Do you know how long it takes to prepare meat of this size? It's already around 9. I don't want to be up until midnight helping you cook food."

Fu crossed her arms over her chest. "Then I'll make it myself."

"Do you even know how to operate an oven?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, prove it."

Fu stomped her way to the oven and stared at the buttons for a few seconds. Then a few more seconds. Finally, she carefully pushed the big one on the side, only for it to beep out at her in protest. "Urrrgh," Fu growled, starting to push buttons on the screen wantonly. "Why doesn't this work?"

Yugito grabbed an apple from the fridge and bit into it. "Because it's proofed against children and people who don't know how to use ovens," she said after swallowing the first bite. "If you really want it that bad, I'll help you out tomorrow. For now, just try to get something simple for yourself."

Fu puffed her cheeks and groaned, but eventually relented. There was so much wonderful food in there and she had to settle for something 'simple'? That wasn't fair. Not even a little bit.

The door banged open and Kurotsuchi walked in with one hand rubbing her shoulders and back. "Is this where I'm staying? Nice duds."

"Hey," Fu said excitedly. "Wanna make some ham?"

Kurotsuchi's eyebrows knit together. "What, like leg of ham? No way, that'll take way too long. Plus, I'm not even hungry."

Fu deflated. "How about tomorrow then?"

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "I dunno," she said as she walked to where she assumed the stairs would be. "Oh, and I've got dibs on the biggest room."

Once she was out of earshot, Temari leaned against the countertop and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's a bit of a switch of character, huh?"

Yugito nodded. "Sorry, what was your name again?"

"Temari of the desert. You?"

"Yugito Nii."

"And I'm Fu," Fu said, rushing forward to offer her hand.

Temari took it in her own with a half-smile. "Nice to meet you, hopefully we'll get along for as long as this lasts."

"Oh?" Yugito asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Temari's eyebrows rose. "You're kidding right? There's no way this lasts longer than a week. Either someone's going to try to kill someone else, the populace will riot, or… I don't know, something. Now that I think about it, you didn't look too happy about this either. Why are you suddenly okay with it?"

Yugito breathed out slowly. "I'm not okay with it, but Ai said he's not going to force me to do anything I don't want to do. So… I'm… trying."

"Trying?"

Yugito shrugged. "Mostly, I'll just do my best not to hurt anyone. Apparently Ai really wants peace."

Temari nodded. "Huh, so does my brother."

Both of them stood there for a few seconds before what they processed truly sunk in.

"Wait…" Yugito said slowly. She turned to Fu. "What about Shibuki, what does he want out of this?"

Fu shrugged. "I don't know. It was kind of a surprise. He was always a pacifist, though. I don't think he has ulterior motives."

"So…" Temari turned to look at where Kurotsuchi went off to. "On the presumption that you two are telling the truth, that means that cloud really does want peace. Sand really wants peace. Waterfall really wants peace. Mei needs the money for her nation, so she wants peace too. Konoha wants peace, because come on, they always do. Rock is really the only variable we don't know about here."

"They've always been warmongers," Fu quipped in.

"I'm sure they say the same about Konoha," Yugito said.

Temari cupped her chin in morbid thought. "Then that means…"

The door opened again to show Mei walking in sedately. She quickly noticed the three in the kitchen and walked over to them. "Hello. Has everyone claimed their rooms yet?"

"The uhmm…" Fu said uncertainly. "What was her name again?"

"Kurotsuchi," Temari said. "She said she was claiming the biggest room. We haven't been up there yet. So, go ahead."

"Maybe later. Is there anything appetizing in the refrigerator?" Mei asked as she opened it up.

"Nothing ready-to-go," Temari said.

Mei was already reaching in for the eggs, milk, and ketchup by the time Temari finished speaking. "Surely you're capable of making something for yourself?"

"Well, yeah," Temari said indignantly "It's late, is all."

"That's no excuse," Mei said, putting a pan on the stove and setting it to medium high.

"What're you making?" Fu asked.

Mei grabbed a bowl out of one of the cupboards and started mixing the eggs and the milk together. "An omelet," she said.

"Oh, can I have one?"

"Of course," Mei said with a smile.

Temari leaned next to Yugito while the other two were busy conversing. "There's a chance that this could be permanent, couldn't it?"

Yugito toyed around with the notion a few times in her head.

"Fuck."

00000000

Naruto was in a dark room. He'd tried to turn on lights, but the electricity had been cut off. That was okay though, he could see the room he was in fairly well from the light of the moon coming in through the main window.

His chest was gripped with confusion and sorrow at what he saw, or more accurately to say, what he didn't see. All of his furniture was gone. His pictures and their frames, his plates, his chairs, his bed, even his clothes from off of their hangers.

And he'd spent so long getting the place in immaculate shape before he left with Jiraiya. Now it was all gone. There were even little outlines on the ground from the change of worn to not-worn flooring that showed exactly where the articles had been. That had to be the worst part of it. That he could just barely make out what might have been what was supposed to happen.

Naruto sat down on the hardwood floor and cupped his chin in his hands. His room had a good view of the monument, and now that was all that the room had. He had nothing left. He didn't know how long he had been sitting in the emptiness of his apartment, but it was long enough to see the sun set and the moon change slightly in position.

The door to his apartment opened up. It wasn't an intruder, if it had been, he wouldn't have heard the footsteps coming up behind him. They were heavy and made the floors creak under their weight.

"Hey Naruto," Jiraiya said with uncharacteristic somberness in his voice. "You okay?"

Naruto sighed into his hands. "I don't even know what I don't know."

Jiraiya sighed as well and sat down next to him. "Apparently, the Fourth Hokage signed different documents before you were born that put you into an arranged marriage with four other girls from four nations, all hoping for a political marriage with his unborn son. Tsunade thinks it was because he was doing paperwork with shadow clones and the proposals all came at the same time. About two months ago, Onoki unearthed his and brought it forward to Tsunade. When they looked for the copy kept in Konoha, they realized that there were three others. She sent word out to the other three nations without expecting an answer back, and got one from all three. Mei, the new Mizukage, got wind of it and put herself forward as a marriage candidate. They've been figuring out the details for about a week now before you showed up."

Naruto took a second to absorb and dissect the information dump heaped on his head. There was one thing that stuck out in particular. Something that wasn't accounted for. "But… why me? Why sign that before I was even born?"

Jiraiya took in a deep breath and let it out as slowly as he could. That wasn't something he'd wanted to bring up ever, if it could be helped. He was going to figure it out eventually, especially with all the diplomatic bullshit going on, so… no time like the present to rip off a band-aid. "The reason why… is because the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze… well, he's- he was, your father."

Naruto was deathly silent for a fairly long time before looking up to Jiraiya with his eyebrows scrunched up. "What?" he asked.

Jiraiya sighed, but said nothing more.

"But that, but that doesn't make any sense. Why would I- Why would he put the Kyuubi in me? Why did I have to live like an orphan? Why didn't anyone tell me?!" Naruto shouted the last part out, tears flinging from his cheeks. "This can't be real. This has to be an illusion or something."

Jiraiya patted him on the shoulder. Small, silent sobs, started to wrack Naruto's chest. "No one really knows what happened during your birth. The only thing we know for certain is that the Kyuubi got out and your parents killed themselves protecting, sealing, and saving you from it. The reason the Third and I never told you was because… well, let's just say that your father racked up a lot of enemies in his lifetime. You would have been in danger. And also, I think your father would have preferred it this way. He would have wanted you to be seen for yourself, instead of the son of a hero."

"Everyone only saw me as a monster," Naruto spat out bitterly.

Jiraiya looked down on Naruto more seriously. "Naruto, listen to me. Minato, your father, could have resealed the Kyuubi back into your mother, but he didn't. He could have sealed it into something temporarily so that I could dispose of it properly, but he didn't. He could have done any number of things that didn't involve you with the Kyuubi, but he didn't. He sealed it into you. I think it's because he saw something that day. I think he had a plan when he put the Kyuubi in you."

Naruto was silent for a few seconds. "…Resealed? It was in my mom before me?"

Jiraiya grimaced. "Yes, you're the third Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. The first one was Mito, the wife of the first hokage, and the second one was your mother."

Naruto sniffled loudly and wiped the tears from his eyes with the cuffs of his shirt. "My… my mom. What was she like."

Jiraiya leaned back, propped up by the palms of his hands on the hardwood floor and gazed at the monument faces with Naruto. "She was a terrific woman," he said with a smile. "I think you mostly take after her. She was brash and bold, she didn't take no for an answer, she loved you more than the world…

00000000

Naruto opened the door to the well-sized house as slowly as he could. Emotionally, he felt like shit and he was tired enough to want to fall asleep on the nearest soft-looking surface. Even so, he made sure his steps were silent and that his grumbles remained within his head. He didn't know if the others were in the house yet, but it was always better to err on the side of caution, especially when dealing with emotionally charged females with a wide array of potentially lethal ninja techniques.

He made a beeline for the couch. The pervy sage said that there were five bedrooms and he didn't want to risk opening a door he shouldn't. Besides, it wasn't like the couch was the worst option for a sleeping surface. And, walking up to it, it looked surprisingly lived-in and comfortable. From the scarce lighting, he could see irregular pillows under a woolen blanket. Had Shizune already set something up for him? That was nice of her.

If only he noticed the slight movement underneath the blanket indicating breathing. Or the mop of green hair poking out the end. Because if he did, he might have reconsidered falling down on top of it face-first, trying to enjoy the sensation of a freefall into the comfortable cushiony embrace of a welcoming bed.

What he got instead was landing on the bony body of a teenager underneath a thin blanket.

Fu shrieked, punched and kneed him in the chest and gut, scrambled out from under him, and called her signature technique, double water swords, to her hands. Naruto grunted, first from the surprise, then from the pain, and slipped off from the couch, cradling his torso and trying to get air back in his lungs.

The entirety of Fu's eyes had turned orange, a sign of her bijuu chakra getting mixed into her body, and her breath was ragged and full of adrenaline. As she realized what had happened, the orange of her eyes leaked back into place and her breathing normalized.

"What the hell?" Naruto hissed out. That girl packed a hell of a punch.

"I should be asking that!" Fu yelled out in a harsh whisper. "What did you do?"

"I didn't know anyone was in the couch!" Naruto whisper yelled back as he slowly got to his feet.

Fu dispelled her water swords and sat down in a nearby chair. "You're a ninja, right? You should have noticed." Her voice mellowed out into a soft utterance.

Naruto pulled himself onto the couch in a sitting position and rubbed his sore chest. "I've been having a day, alright? And why were you on the couch to begin with?"

Fu shrugged. "There're only five rooms. Someone has to."

"Yeah, and it's usually the guy that does that. Or at least the last person who walks in the house."

Fu crossed her arms over her chest. "I was trying to be nice. You didn't look like you having a good day when I saw you. Looked like you could use a soft bed."

Naruto closed his eyes and let his breathing return to normal. "That's… thanks. But… I'm not the only one. You're not having the best day either, are you?"

Fu shrugged again. "I've had worse. You too, right? I mean, you did just get married to five beautiful women, one of which is a bodaciously awesome person," Fu smiled at the last part, putting it in as soon as she thought of it with a thumb pointed in her direction and a bubbly smirk.

Naruto smiled too, even if it was a bit strained. "At least someone thinks so. And… yeah… I think you're right. This isn't the _worst_ day I've ever had. I've just gotta… think positively."

Fu nodded appreciatively and a small, somewhat tense silence fell over them.

"Well," Fu said, putting her hands on her knees and standing up. "First thing's first, my name's Fu. Nice to meet you." She extended her hand out to him.

Naruto smiled and clasped her hand in his own. "Nice to meet you too. And… thanks, I guess, for not killing me. Can't say the same for the others." Naruto muttered the last sentence under his breath, though Fu still heard it.

She sat down next to him. "They're not that bad. Yugito's nice. A bit cold, but she's nice deep down. Temari's… pragmatic, I guess. Mei's… she's honestly a bit scary. Scary in a good way though, if that makes sense. And I haven't talked to Kurotsuchi yet. But I don't think you have to worry about her. She's more bark than bite, I can tell."

Naruto smiled tiredly. "And you… are nice. Nicer than you should be."

Fu punched him lightly and unsurely on the elbow. She wasn't sure if that show of affection was too familiar or not. "We are going to be seeing a lot of each other. We might as well make things good, right?"

Naruto smiled, this time a tad bit more sincerely. "Yeah, you're right."

"What's all the racket?"

Naruto and Fu whipped around to see Yugito walking out of the hallway as silently as a cat.

"That was kind of a delayed response," Fu said. "The ruckus happened about a minute ago."

Yugito stopped in front of the couch with her arms crossed over her chest. "Oh, I was awake the second he walked in the door. I've been listening in your conversation and decided to introduce myself. So, here I am. Yugito Nii, pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Erm, yeah. I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Likewise."

Yugito leaned back and looked towards the kitchen, where she read the clock off of the oven. "Shit, only midnight."

"S'wrong?" Fu asked.

Yugito smirked. "I think you actually won the lottery with the couch, because our friend from rock snores like you wouldn't believe. I barely fell asleep when you walked in."

"Ah… sorry," Naruto said helplessly. "I didn't mean to."

Yugito walked to the chair Fu had been occupying previously and sat down. "That's alright. It gives us a chance to talk. I was a bit brash before in the office and I apologize for that. This isn't a good scenario for anyone to be in and my acting like a child only made it worse. You don't seem like a bad person, but in our industry, looks can be deceiving. So I'll make this as clear as I can be right from the start. We're now married, but for all intents and purposes, those are just words. They hold no meaning. I don't know you and you don't know me. You aren't entitled to _anything_ from me. If you try something that I deem inappropriate, I will not hesitate to react in a most brutal and redemptive way. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto sat stock still for a few seconds before leaning over to Fu slightly and whispering "You sure she's nice deep down?"

Fu broke into a chortle and Naruto quickly followed. That is, until there were razor sharp, outstretched fingernails scraping his jugular. Yugito's face hadn't changed at all, even in the position of her practically threatening his life. "I'm glad you find it funny. I do not. I just want to emphasize my position on this manner."

The fingernails retracted, allowing Naruto to breathe without the fear of accidentally cutting open his neck. Without another word edgewise, Yugito walked back down the hallway and further into the house out of sight. It was like the darkness enveloped her.

"Are you sure she's not the scary one?" Naruto asked quietly.

Fu shrugged. "At least she's helping me cook up ham for dinner tomorrow."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "Ham?"

Fu's face got an electric smile. "Yeah. There's so much food in the fridge, including a whole ham leg. And there's an oven too. Making it's going to be so easy. And trust me, I should know. I tried to cook a pig over a wood fire once. It went terribly. Open fire isn't good for big meat."

Naruto laughed despite the situation he was in. This might be hard to deal with, but at least one of them was nice.

00000000

Two figures cloaked in black suits of red clouds looked out over the walls of the great hidden leaf from a vantage point far away. One was short, wide, and shuffled around to get to where he needed to go. The other was tall, somewhat lanky, and had a ponytail of blond hair peeking out of his outfit.

"This complicates matters," Deidara muttered. "What should we do? We only need to get the Kazekage, right?"

Sasori's throat rumbled with dissatisfaction. "There are the other kage to consider as well. Along with the two Jinchuuriki. We won't win if we go with a frontal attack. We should pull back for now."

"Ahh, but Sasori, my man, you just said the solution to the problem. We won't win with a frontal assault. So, we go a different route."

Sasori glanced up to his partner. "Are you sure you'll be able to contain yourself?"

Deidara smiled predatorily. "It's not about containment. It's about letting loose at just the right moment."

 **AN/ I've got some good story names from various people, but I'm going to let it go through one more wave of reviews. Also, buy my book. In between the time of posting the last chapter and posting this chapter, I've realized that I really like shilling my book. So I'm probably going to do it a lot. At least until I'm rich and famous, that is.**

 **The book's title is 'A Most Beautiful Shade of Red'**

 **have a gentlemanly day**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Naruto didn't get very much sleep. There were a lot of reasons for that, the most obvious one being that he didn't even get to his new home until midnight. The second most obvious was because he didn't want to brave the darkness of the halls and risk running into the crazy super-sharp-nail lady and risk his genitalia, so he pulled a few somewhat uncomfortable chairs together and slept on them opposite Fu. However, the third most obvious reason why he didn't get much sleep was the thing that kept him up the longest, strangely enough, and it was him doing something he usually didn't like doing.

Thinking.

And the more he thought about his situation, the more scared he got.

It got to the point where he was planning out how to approach Tsunade, when to approach her, and what to say to her in order to do anything from getting someone else to replace him, all the way to maybe just a roundtable bodyguard system in place. Futile as it might have been, and even he knew it was, he was mostly doing that to actively not think about the huge bombshell that was dropped on his head by his mentor.

He was the son of Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, and Kushina Uzumaki, the second Jinchuuriki? Well, that explained the whisker marks at least. On one hand, it was nice knowing who his parents were, but on the other, every time he thought about it, more questions just popped up in his head like mole hills. His brain was eating away at itself trying to make justifications for any of the reasons why he had to suffer and it just couldn't. Nothing that made sense anyway.

And thus, he only truly fell asleep around the 4 o'clock mark. Unluckily enough for him, Temari was a morning person, and she didn't get much sleep either thanks to a certain lady ninja from rock belting away through her nasal cavities. So around 5 o'clock, he awoke to the sound and smells of bacon sizzling on a pan in the kitchen that was directly across from the living room.

One hour of sleep a happy man does not make.

Naruto sat up, smacking his lips together to get the feeling of sleep bile off his tongue and immediately winced. The morning sunrise was in perfect view of the living room window and also at the perfect height where it blinded him sitting up. He tumbled off the couch and walked over to the kitchen, where Temari was poking at the strips of meat.

"Hey Temari," he muttered as he nosed through the fridge.

She was wearing felt pajamas with patterns of weasels flying around on it. "Hey Naruto," she replied flatly "Want me to throw a few strips on for you too?" She was asking more out of politeness rather than intimacy.

"Yeah," he said quickly, still blinking the light out of his eyes. "Thanks."

"Don't… mention it," she said lowly as she reached for more pig meat. The pan's sizzling exploded in intensity when she put the new ones on. "You a morning person too?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head emphatically. "Nope. Didn't sleep well."

Temari nodded knowingly. "Mmhmm. Someone needs to get that girl some sleep plugs or something."

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. "What? No, I mean, I was sleeping over there," he pointed to the 'bed' he was using as a sleep surface. "I was awake because… stuff."

"Stuff, huh?" Temari asked in an almost mocking tone. "Because that's not vague."

"I was… thinking, okay? You weren't?"

Temari shrugged, putting the pieces of bacon that were ready for consumption on a plate with a paper towel on it. "I was trying to blot out the sounds of a lion's death throes coming from Kurotsuchi's room. But, yes, I guess that contributed to it."

Naruto sighed and leaned against the counter. "We're married now, aren't we? That's so weird to think about. I should be freaking out right now."

"Don't," Temari warned. "It's not like this is real or anything. Not like _real_ real. If I had to guess, it would probably be just a stamped paper and nothing else. I'm sure it's all ceremonial."

"So does that mean… we can see other people?" Naruto asked, his hopes starting to raise. If that were to be the case, then the political marriage would mean nothing to him, not really. He could still date Sakura, save Sasuke, and become the Hokage without any problems.

Temari paused and stared at the bacon. Traditionally, it wasn't uncommon for both spouses in a political marriage to be able to take lovers aside from their partners, but the way Tsunade described their marriage made it seem like it was going to be broadcasted all across the world as a message of peace to tie all the nations together. _Would_ they be able to see other people? "Maybe," she replied noncommittally. Mei might know. She went back to kage administration shortly meeting up with the rest of them the night before.

Naruto yawned widely. "Well, I don't really know you that well, but at least you don't look crazy. That makes two out of five."

"Two?" Temari asked?

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, you and Fu."

"Have you met the other three?"

"The, uhh…" Naruto tapped his finger to his chin. "What the cloud chick's name? Started with a 'Yu'."

"Yugito?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, her. She threatened to kill me if I came on to her. So I'm going to have to put her down on the 'try not to interact with much' list."

Temari giggled. "Doesn't that mean you just have to not act like an asshole?"

Naruto touched his throat at around where her knife-like nails had been last night. Perhaps he wasn't explaining it properly. "I guess," Naruto replied helplessly. Sometimes it was better to accept defeat move on with a conversation. He learned that from Jiraiya, though admittedly, the roles were usually reversed.

The sounds of shuffled stomping came from the hallway. Kurotsuchi poked her head through to the kitchen with bleary eyes and midway through a large yawn when she realized it was occupied by both Naruto and Temari. Her yawn turned into a smirk. "Hey loverboy," she said sleepily.

It was obvious that she was being condescending rather than playful. Even Naruto knew that. He just scrunched his eyebrows and looked at her confusedly. "What was your name again?" He knew better than anyone that someone dismissing a call for attention was the worst feeling possible when one was seeking it.

Her smirk turned into a light frown. "Kurotsuchi," she almost spat out as she shuffled over to where the drawers were and started raiding them for cereal.

"So what does breakfast usually look like in rock, Kurotsuchi?" Temari asked disinterestedly.

"Cereal and field rations."

"No bacon?" Naruto asked, munching through a strip as Temari added a few more to the pan.

She brought out the fixings for cereal and started up her usual breakfast with the ease and grace of a person who had been doing it for years. "Look, as much as I'd like to play house with you all, I think I'll pass. I've got things to do, places to go, people to see, and all that jazz. And I don't want to do it with you."

Naruto snorted. "What do you have to do? You're not on a mission, are you?"

She smiled at him with an over exaggerated sweetness. "That's confidential, _honey_."

A tic mark formed on Naruto's forehead, but he didn't respond to her. It's not like it really mattered what she was doing, but just the way she responded to him got on his nerves. Way more than Sasuke ever had, that was for sure.

Yugito walked in so silently that Naruto wasn't even sure how long she'd been standing there, just that when he took a step back, he nearly bumped into her. Ever the dexterous type, she sidestepped him and grabbed a piece of bacon from the bacon plate without making a sound.

"Woah," Naruto said appreciatively. "You're like a cat."

Yugito practically growled as she gave him the stink eye. "Was that you trying to be funny?"

Naruto looked from side to side a few times. "What? No, I just didn't even know you were there. You move like a cat.

"It's because," Fu said from the couch and pausing to take a yawn "… She's the Jinchuuriki of Matatabi, the two-tailed demon death cat. You know, cats."

"Oohh…" Naruto said in realization.

Yugito leveled a hard stare at him. "You didn't know that?"

Naruto sighed. It was too early in the morning for this. "Nope, I didn't Ms. I'll-Kill-You-If-You-Try-Anything."

Yugito shrugged. "I will."

"Yeah, I know you will! The point is, that's not how you're supposed to introduce yourself to someone you're meeting for the first time! Even I know that."

Temari looked over at everyone. "Am I the only one who brought a second pair of clothes?"

Indeed, everyone was wearing what they had come into the house with and all the clothing was slightly rumpled, indicating they'd been slept in with the slight exception of Naruto, who had taken off his jacket.

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "I don't know where they took my stuff."

Kurotsuchi started paying attention to the conversation. "Wait, you're a fan of orange tracksuits, right?"

Naruto nodded slowly, already dreading the answer. "Yeah…"

Kurotsuchi pointed her spoon at him. "I think I might have slept in your room. There were a bunch of those in the closet," she said through a mouthful of Ninja-Os.

Naruto leaned against the countertop. "That's one mystery solved."

"Oh, oh wait a minute. Does that mean the penguin sleeping cap was yours too?"

Naruto nodded.

"Awww… I didn't know my _honey_ was such a softie," Kurotsuchi said in a baby-voice.

The tic mark returned with a vengeance. "And _I_ didn't know that my _dearest_ -"

"Don't." Temari warned. "She's just trying to get a rise out of you."

Naruto took a deep breath. He might have been able to deal with the situation better if he had gotten more sleep. Too bad that didn't happen. Kurotsuchi just sat back with a smirk on her face and continued eating her cereal. He already really fucking hated her and could already tell they were going to get along like C4 and an electric charge.

Fu tumbled out of the couch blearily mumbling "Too early."

"You're a ninja," Yugito said sternly. "You should be able to get out of bed at a moment's notice."

"I _can_ ," Fu said defensively. "But what kind of masochist wants to wake up at five o'clock?"

Temari, Kurotsuchi, and Yugito all raised their hands. Fu pouted at them. "I'm surrounded by weirdos."

"Here here," Naruto said, making Fu huff a few breaths of laughter out.

"Is that bacon I smell?" Mei asked, obscured by the hallway.

"Yeah!" Naruto said emphatically, going for another slice. "It's really good t-"

He didn't get the last part out because his windpipe suddenly got obstructed with semi-chewed pieces of bacon. The reason for this was from the involuntary gasp when he saw what Mei was wearing. Or, wasn't wearing, for lack of a better term. Because Mei was a woman who was used to sleeping and living alone, she had thusly not packed suitable sleeping attire that covered her body very effectively. She had also 'forgotten' to put her normal clothes back on that morning. Basically, she was wearing a nighty so sheer that it was encroaching on lingerie levels.

Yugito started patting Naruto on the back to help get the meat out of his throat while he hacked away. Kurotsuchi whistled appreciatively. "Is that part of the kekkai genkai too?" she asked lowly, pointing her spoon at the two mammary's.

It seemed Mei didn't hear that snippet as she approached and opened the fridge like she wasn't practically naked. Fu was staring at Mei the whole time as she did it with wide eyes.

Temari spared a glance, made a sound like a mixture of a huff and a scoff, and went back to her cooking. It was an obvious ploy for attention, especially from the only male variety in the house, who was just starting to cough out the rest of the bacon stuck in his lungs. How old was she? Shouldn't she be acting more mature?

As soon as Naruto was done coughing, he stood up straight and made sure to divert attention away from Mei. Even so, his face was a dangerous shade of red and there was a major threat of nosebleed. His constitution wasn't so low that he'd pop a boner at the mere mention of sexuality, but he was afraid of what might happen if he stayed there. "Right," he coughed into his hand as he beheld the contours of the counter "Well, I'm going to talk to granny. She's probably up by now."

Mei's face scrunched up in worry. "And what about breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, you know.

Naruto nodded, still refusing to look at her. He didn't trust his eyes not to wander and he also didn't want to set a bad first impression on the people he had a feeling he was going to be seeing a lot of. "Oh, yeah I know. I'll get something more satisfying on the way," he said on his way to the door.

00000000

6:30 A.M.

Tsunade groaned as she stretched her back out. She'd been hunched over her work for so long that when she tried to bend the other way, there were audible cracks as her vertebrae sorted themselves back out. She was getting too old for this shit. Of all the monumental achievements bequeathed to society due to the advancements of chakra utilization towards domestic use, why couldn't there be a better way to read over and sign documents in a professional manner. Honestly, the amount of times that she considered just moving her bed into her office to do-

"Granny!" The door burst open with a bang and showed Naruto in the middle of the doors, agitated, but not considerably short of breath. There were dark bags under his eyes and his clothes were ruffled.

Tsunade was jostled back to attention and looked back at him with dark bags of her own. Not that he'd know; they were obscured by her youth genjutsu. "Yeah-" she mumbled lazily before coughing and straightening out her spine. "Yes?" She asked again, this time in a more commanding way.

Naruto walked up to her desk and placed his palms on the table. "C-Can you- Could you- Rrg!" He had planned out how to ask her beforehand, but his words just kept getting muddled in his mouth. Fuck it. He was a man of action anyway. "This isn't going to work!" He finally got out.

Tsunade let her back slump forward and caught her head by the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "There's no stopping this-"

"I-I know. It's just- Okay, so one of them's nice. That's great. She's great. Good. Her name's Fu. One of them, I don't really know that well, but she's okay. Temari and I get along fine enough. One of them, the one from Rock, I cannot stand. She's such a-"

"Naruto," Tsunade warned. "The Tsuchikage's still in the village here and the walls have ears. Don't say something you wouldn't say to him."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Even he has to know that his granddaughter's a bit of a cunt."

"Oh, Christ," Tsunade muttered as she started to rub her temples.

"And another one, the one from cloud, Yugito, she threatened to kill me if I came onto her. Which okay, yeah, I get it, don't come on to her, but those were the first things she ever said to me. It was unprovoked. And then, she did this weird nail-elongation-thingy and put 'em to my neck. And those things were sharp. I think the lines are still showing on my skin." Naruto tilted his head back to she could see.

Tsunade peeked under his chin. He wasn't lying.

"And I'm pretty sure the last one's an exhibitionist," Naruto said conclusively.

Tsunade shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what you want me to tell you. At least none of them threatened to kill you outright. That's a plus, right?"

"The status of me not having a death threat should be normal!"

Tsunade splayed her hands out to the side. "Yes, and you're going to have to deal with it."

Naruto's face scrunched in frustration and he even took a deep breath like he was about to yell, but he let it out through his nose at the last second. He took a few more deep breaths and sat in the chair opposite Tsunade. "Okay… okay, I get it. It's going to happen. But that doesn't mean I have to live with them, does it? It's all just… words on paper. Why did you pack up my apartment anyway? My things were good where they were."

Tsunade slapped her hands down on the desk a bit harder than she maybe should have. "Look, Naruto, the only way any of you are going to get along better is if you spend some time with each other. So yes, I took the liberty of sending your apartment to the house in the biggest room there. And that's a good house, might I add. You would have had to spend your whole life doing missions as a genin if you wanted to even put a down payment on it."

Naruto took a calming breath and leveled his tired eyes back onto her. "Do I have to spend much time with them?"

"Yes."

Naruto flipped his hands through the air in a show of barely restrained consternation. "Why?!"

"Were you not listening last night? We could have all signed a paper that would have been torn to shreds the moment more than two people had their backs turned. The whole reason that you six were married was because you're important both to the villages and the people inside of it. So yes, you have to interact with each other. Because if our ninjas see you six living together and they know that you all haven't managed to kill each other, then they might think 'huh, maybe our mortal enemies aren't so bad if _they're_ managing to keep the violence to a minimum'."

"So I just have to act?"

"Please don't. You're bad at acting. Just don't kill them. I know you. You won't do that because you're a good person. You're the person I put my faith in, after all."

Naruto lowered his gaze. There was a bit of shame rising from his chest. "C-Can I at least… see other people?" Naruto asked lowly.

Tsunade sighed and looked down on him with a sort of combined fondness and moroseness. "I'm sorry. During the deliberations with the rest of the kage and Shibuki, we decided it was in our best interest to not allow mistresses and the male equivalent among the participants of this marriage."

Naruto sort of crumpled in on himself from the combined exhaustion, stress, and emotional trauma. It just kept getting worse and worse. Next thing she was going to say was that he wouldn't be able to try and bring Sasuke back.

Tsunade opened her mouth to speak, to which Naruto suddenly pointed a finger at her face and said "No! Forced marriage or not, I'm bringing Sasuke back. This isn't going to stop me and I don't care what you have to say about it."

Tsunade's eyes colored with a hint of amusement. "That's okay, you can do that. I was going to ask how you slept last night."

Naruto sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Bad. Like, really bad. Like, only an hour of sleep bad."

Tsunade leaned back as well. "I only got two. Though that was only because I was up with the rest of the kage, making changes to our agreement. Why didn't you get sleep?"

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "How could I? Just found out I'm being forced into marriage with people I don't know. I got to the house late and I didn't want to wander the halls because I was scared I'd get my balls cut off by the scary woman with the long nails. And to top it all off, I just found out my dad was the fourth hokage, who sealed the collective hatred of humanity in my gut for reasons unknown, but thought to be of good nature."

Tsunade's eyebrows quirked. "So Jiraiya told you about your father? Good. I wasn't sure he would go through with it."

Naruto splayed his hands helplessly. "Kinda wished I knew all along, but… whatever. I don't have the energy to be angry."

Tsunade looked behind her to check on the status of the sun. "Speaking of energy, the official announcement is going to happen at around noon to the whole of the village. Could you do me a favor and make sure your- uhm… the other five make it on time?"

Naruto's eyes went half-lidded. "You were going to refer to them as my harem, weren't you?"

Tsunade let a bit of her exhaustion show through. "It was a long night," she said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable excuse.

Naruto got up slowly, gave her a somewhat mocking salute and exited through the door.

00000000

7:00 A.M.

Naruto went to his favorite training ground next. Whenever his brain was stumped with a difficult question, it always helped to go to a field and train his body and various ninjutsu. Because even if he didn't make any progress on a brain problem, it was heartening to know that at the end of the day, he'd made progress on at least his combat potential.

His ninjutsu arsenal might have been sorely lacking to the common bystander, but it wasn't to him. He didn't need a huge amount of ninjutsu that were really only effective in certain situations because he had the most important ninja tool in the written history of shinobi. He had versatility. Though many might laugh at the mere concept, it was Naruto's mind that was his greatest asset. The thing that got him through most of his encounters with life or death was the ability to think up a solid battle strategy on the fly with limited information a shit ton of improvisation. The fact that he was unpredictable was the reason why he was a person who was difficult to defeat in battle.

Thusly, Naruto's training usually revolved around him training his body and schooling his mind on how to use shadow clones or rasengan differently. Sparring with himself was actually shockingly useful due to the fact that he got the knowledge of what he did wrong with a punch to his face, either giving or receiving. Unlike other people, who often trained in a specific way or style of fighting, he just focused on fighting.

Yugito alighted on the ground in perfect view of him doing just that, fighting with himself. It was amusing to watch him beat himself up, so she stood just under the treeline, practically invisible under the shade of the leaves.

A one on one match turned to two on one. Then two on two, three on one, two on three, three on three and so on. When she felt like she had a firm grasp on his fighting style, she walked out of the treeline and towards him. By the time she was noticed, there was practically a war going on between the Narutos.

The main Naruto undid the jutsu and stood, sore and tired from the sparring and looked at her. "Yeah?" He asked. He had taken off his shirt and was practically drenched in sweat. Any bruises that were forming were in the process of getting healed right before her eyes. Her healing factor might have been impressive due to her status as a Jinchuuriki, but this was just insane.

Yugito eyes didn't move from his. "I came to your village's training grounds to do my daily exercises. I sensed your chakra and came over."

Naruto was watching her like a man in front of a tiger who he had been told by his friends was friendly but he wasn't really sure if they were telling the truth. Her voice wasn't quite monotonous or disinterested, but more detached than anything else. Like she was doing she didn't want to do, but was doing it anyway. Talking to him was like eating vegetables to her. "Right…" Naruto said as he took a step back. "What, do you want a tour or something?"

Yugito shook her head. "No, just curious about you. We're going to be spending some time together, so I figured we should establish a rapport."

"What's a rapport?"

Yugito closed her eyes and let out a small sigh. "Let's call it… an understanding of sorts."

"You threatened to kill me," Naruto stated with a deadpan.

"I was setting a boundary."

"Is that what they call it in cloud?"

A small, sort of dangerous smile flickered on her face for a fraction of a second. "I wasn't sure what kind of person you were, or are, for that matter, so I erred on the side of caution. I wouldn't want to kill you if you tried something you shouldn't, after all."

"Do I look like the kind of guy who'd do something like that?"

"Looks can be deceiving."

"And sometimes people are like an open book. You see how my face looks kind of annoyed. That means I'm annoyed," Naruto said condescendingly.

Yugito took a while to formulate her answer. Too many thoughts flickered through her mind that she wanted to say but knew that she probably shouldn't. No, she was the adult in their situation. She had to be mature. In the end, she decided to go with the best policy, honesty. Her face hardened as she said "I'm… trying my hardest here. I've just been sent to a country that, historically, I've been at war with my entire life, been told that I was getting in an arranged marriage along with four other women, and to top it all off, it's to a boy. The fact that I'm here at all, trying get to know you better, is only because I want to be sure of where we stand, so I know how to act moving forward."

Naruto bristled at the 'boy' comment. She might have been trying for a reasoned response by wearing her thoughts on her sleeve, but it had the opposite effect. He walked up to her and glared at her. She was only 2 or so inches taller than him, so where did she get off calling him a boy? She didn't look that much older than him. "I'm not a boy," Naruto said, his eyes slanting dangerously.

Yugito huffed out of amusement. She was almost twice his age and had been training as a shinobi non-stop since she was a child. Did he actually think he stood an ice cube's chance in hell against her? Where did all that arrogance come from. Yugito smiled and placed a single finger against his chest. "Would you like to put your money where your mouth is, boy?"

Naruto slapped the hand from his chest. "What are the conditions?"

"Taijutsu only."

"Works for me."

They both waited in a status of complete and utter stillness. The wind picked up and ruffled the trees' branches off in the distance. One of the small green leaves broke off a branch and fluttered through the air until it was between then.

As soon as that leaf alighted on the ground, they flew into a furious brawl.

00000000

7:30

A Naruto clone opened the door to the house the six of them were staying at. The only person immediately visible inside was Mei, who was sitting at a table in the kitchen with a newspaper in her hand. Thankfully, she was fully clothed.

The clone walked in and leaned against a wall leading to the kitchen. "Are you the only one here?" he asked.

Mei's head tilted a fraction, though her eyes didn't leave the paper. "Ah, Naruto. Nice to see you too."

Naruto, after a few seconds of deliberation, took a seat opposite her. His face scrunched up for a moment. "Mei, right?"

Mei nodded her head.

"So are you the only one here?" He reiterated.

She nodded again.

"Right, well the announcement to the village is happening at noon, so granny wants you be there at around that time, okay?"

He was about to get back up, but Mei's eyes snapped away from the paper to his, interrupting his train of thought. "Did you just call the most powerful woman in the entire village 'Granny'?"

Naruto nodded, a small mischievous smile on his face. "Yeah. Did you know that she's actually really old and just hides it all with a genjutsu?"

Mei looked up, considering that for a moment, before saying "I suppose that would make sense. She is from a few generations above me, after all. However, Naruto, you should know that women are sensitive about their age. If you call them 'Granny', it could hurt their feelings."

Naruto sighed into his palm. "Look, we have a bit of a history with each other. When I first met her, she was a rotten old hag who was willing to throw Konoha to the wolves. Some things happened, I won a bet, and now she's the hokage. She's a good person now, don't get me wrong, but I'll never stop calling her that."

Mei smiled with a sweetness that couldn't be natural and looked back to her newspaper. That didn't sit well with him, so he asked. "Why?"

"Hm?" Mei asked, looking up from the printed word.

"Why does it bother you that much? How old are you anyway?"

Mei's face was dangerously still for 5 seconds. 5 whole seconds of doing nothing but looking at him with a smile on her face. He could tell that she was just stalling for time as she figured out an answer, but it still creeped the hell out of him.

"I'm 24," she finally said. "And as for why calling her granny bothers me so much, it's simply proper etiquette."

"But she _is_ old enough to be a grandmother. It's a term of endearment."

Mei nodded her head down. "Still though, it's nice to be considerate of the feelings of others."

Naruto let the subject go with a tired shake of his head. He was never going understand women. "So you're 24 then? Honestly, I thought you were older than that."

The paper in her hands crinkled with a suddenness Naruto wasn't expecting. It deformed the entire section she had been reading. Naruto didn't have to be a detective to know that he accidentally pissed her right the fuck off.

Naruto's brain started working overtime. Why did that just happen? What had he said that made her angry? The only thing he talked about was her… age…

"Er," Naruto choked on his words as he started to get them out "I- I mean I only thought that because you, er, act so mature. You look exactly your age."

Mei started inadvertently leaking malicious chakra from her body, making Naruto even more on edge. Why couldn't women be more simple? Why did every interaction he had with one have to be a walking minefield? And why the hell was Mei sensitive about her age? She was only 24.

"Naruto…" Mei said slowly and with barely restrained anger. The malicious chakra started to disperse. "I… understand you have a crush on one Sakura Haruno, correct?" She asked, changing the subject.

Naruto gulped audibly. "Ah, erm, yeah…" He said, looking down and grabbing the back of his head.

Mei put the newspaper down serenely. She took a deep breath in and out, then looked at him with her full attention. Her smile was gone. "Well I'm sorry to say that among a few slight changes to your duties as a shinobi, there is the fact that we, the kage of our villages, have made the agreement that concubines or extraneous lovers shouldn't be allowed-"

Naruto held up a hand to interrupt her. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Granny told me. But… what other changes to my duties are there?"

Mei considered for a moment. "Hm… Nothing of major consequence. You'll be more protected since you're the member with the lowest prestige and ability in our arrangement. Also, after the announcement here in the leaf, the six of us will be going around the countries in a circle making similar announcements to the villages, ending with the iron country."

Setting aside that bit about lowest prestige and ability, Naruto asked "What village is in iron country?"

"That's where the convention of minor villages is going to be held. Shibuki of waterfall is acting as the de facto leader of the minor village alliance."

Naruto's eyes widened somewhat. "There's a minor village alliance?"

"It's mostly just talk, so I doubt many of the shinobi of those same villages are aware of it either. You didn't think Fu was just representative of waterfall, did you? Well, she is, but she's also representing the villages smaller than the big five."

"Damn."

"Damn indeed."

The Naruto clone slapped both of his knees and went to stand up. "I'm done here. Announcement at noon and-"

"And Naruto," Mei asked serenely.

She had her face back on. Every time she wore it, it filled his stomach with no small amount of dread. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Don't ever talk about my age again, or I'll kill you."

With not a second left to lose, the Naruto clone dispelled in a hurry. He knew that even if she was inclined to begin hostilities against him that he wouldn't feel anything and would dispel anyways, but that face made him think twice about it.

At least he knew now to steer clear of that woman like she were the plague.

00000000

7:42

Another Naruto clone was patrolling the village, looking for the three other girls. He had seen Kurotsuchi in the sights of another clone, so that only left Temari and Fu left to alert. Two people in an entire village that housed tens of thousands. This wasn't going to be fun.

Naruto landed on the ground, kicking up some dust from the street. The dirt ground was dry and flew up easily. It was hot out, more so than usual and it was mostly due to the humidity. And it was only morning. He couldn't imagine how hot it would be throughout the day. It was enough to make him consider running across the ground, where shade tended to be more plentiful, rather than the rooftops that he had grown accustomed to.

He put his hands on his hips and looked around the somewhat populated streets. He needed to consume something cold. A lot of the buildings and shops had changed since he'd been away. He hadn't even tracked down most of his friends yet. It was a good thing businesses opened up early in Konoha

As he looked around more sedately, he realized that his feet had inadvertently found his way to Ichiraku's. Ramen with a cool drink sounded perfect. Temari and Fu could wait. He flipped away the flaps and was halfway through saying "Hey old man, guess who's b-" before he realized one of his targets was sitting at the stools. She was out of her pajamas and had put on a black kimono with red trimming. On her back was a war fan as tall as herself. Temari turned around and looked at him. It was as if someone had drained all the emotion out of her face and had just left the exhaustion.

"Hey Naruto!" Teuchi exclaimed exuberantly. "When did you get back? Sit down, let me get you a bowl of your favorite."

Naruto smiled, though it was lacking in a lot of conviction, and sat down next to Temari. His interactions with Mei had taught him to handle the opposite sex like one would handle high impact explosives. In front of her was a practically untouched bowl of ramen heavy with vegetables. "So what brings you here?" Naruto asked gingerly.

Temari straightened out her spine and sighed. "Nothing. What about you?" She was talking like her mouth was on autopilot. Pleasantries spilled from her lips with perfect ease and practice, but her heart wasn't in it.

"It's uh… it's hot out," Naruto said lamely. "Hey old man, can I have something cold to drinik?"

Teuchi tilted his head away from the ramen pot for a second. "Like what?"

"There are options now?"

Even though his face wasn't visible, Naruto could just feel the grin on the old man's lips. "Yessir. We got all kinds of things now."

"Lemonade?"

"Right up."

Naruto and Teuchi started up a back-and-forth, bringing Naruto up to speed on the goings on and happenings of Konoha as well as Teuchi a little insight on Naruto's training trip. Most of it was just idle chit chat that didn't really mean anything, however. Temari sat still and stared listlessly into her bowl the entire way through their interactions. She was listening, but she also wasn't.

Eventually, a few people filtered in through the flaps and Teuchi's attention was drawn away from Naruto. He sat awkwardly still and began to dig into his ramen. It was hard to sit next to a sad person without asking them what was wrong. "So uhm…" Naruto started out, swallowing a particularly hefty portion of noodles. "Granny's announcing the whole… thing, at noon. We all need to be there for it."

Temari nodded, but other than that, Naruto was given no indication to whether or not she was actually listening.

Naruto put his chopsticks on top of the bowl and turned around to face her fully. "Okay, what's wrong?" He asked directly.

Temari glanced his way. "Nothing."

"It's not nothing. You look like a zombie."

Her brow furrowed with annoyance as she turned to him. "I said it doesn't matter. It's none of your business anyway. Why do you care?"

"Oh my god," Naruto said as he pinched his temples with his thumb and fingers, obscuring his eyes. "I asked because there's something obviously bothering you! Don't just bottle all that stuff up. Just talk already. It's not like I'm going to tell anyone if it's embarrassing."

Temari seemed lose the energy she had gained from her annoyance and looked back to her ramen bowl. "Everything's wrong. This whole… situation, cock-up, alliance, harem, whatever it is. I'm married now to a person I barely know. This is just… it's fucked. That's what it is. It's fucked."

Naruto lowered his voice. "You were fine this morning."

Temari glared at her ramen. "…You know Shikamaru?"

Naruto nodded.

"Well… I've liked him and I got the feeling that he liked me for a while. There was always this… it's not like it was tension or anything, but it was like the both of us were waiting for the other one to make a move. I just told him a few minutes ago about the contract. About the fact that I'm now in a harem."

Naruto's mood started to turn more along the lines of hers. "Oh," he said.

"It's… I think it's starting to sink in. This could be it. This," she gesticulated around her wildly. "This could be me for the rest of my life, stuck in a loveless marriage with four other women." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I shouldn't be mad at you, you didn't do anything wrong, but it's hard not to be."

"I'm… angry too, you know," Naruto said with his lowest energy setting possible. "It's not fair. This sucks. But, it's not like this has to define you, or anything. It's just words on paper. I, for one, am still going to become hokage no matter what's in my way. I'm going to bring my best friend back home and I'm going to fulfill my promise to Sakura. What about you? What do you want to do?"

Temari rested her chin on her palm. She was back to staring at her noodles. "I just wanted a normal life."

"Aren't you the daughter of the kage of your village? I'm pretty sure normal wasn't an option the moment you were born."

"I am the sister of the kage right now, actually. And… it's not like I wanted a life without excitement. I just wanted to be able to make friends in the academy. Or to walk down the street without people whispering behind my back. Shikamaru was actually probably the only person I know of that actually treated me like a normal human."

After a few moments of heavy deliberation, Naruto reached out a hand and patted her on the back with a small amount of trepidation. It was like he was patting the back of a dog he suspected might have rabies. "You know, I could be your friend."

She looked at him like he was speaking a second language. "What?"

"And so could Sakura and Ino and Hinata. Kiba acts like a mutt and Shino's a bit creepy sometimes. Chouji's really into food, like really into food, and you know Shikamaru. Lee's really cool, but he doesn't have an off switch. Neji's kind of a bastard, but he's nice deep down. And I don't really know a lot about Tenten, but, actually, I think she's probably the most normal person I know. They're all my friends, and now, they're all yours. See how that works?"

Temari was silent for a short time. "I, hm… I'm not the biggest social butterfly in the world. Do you really think they'd like the unwilling wife of a friend?"

Naruto grinned a little bit. "You're selling yourself short. You're a lot easier to talk to than any girl I know at least. That has to count for something. Plus, you're pretty. That always helps."

A huff of laughter escaped her lips. "Yeah, okay." She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I… I guess you're right. I wanted to sulk about this a little bit more, but you're right. Life isn't over. I can… I can manage this." Temari picked up her chopsticks and stirred the noodles around in the broth.

There were worse people she could end stuck together for the rest of her life with. She didn't know whether or not unending optimism was going to get old in the long run, but it was better than pretending she didn't exist at least.

And then the Naruto clone dispelled without warning.

00000000

7:40

Naruto first saw Kurotsuchi as she was standing out in the streets trying to decide between two shops. One, a run-of-the-mill shinobi outfitter, the kind that bought stock from all over the world and sold it rather than having a specialization in clothes, armor, weapons, or what have you. And two, a civilian fashion store with predominantly female summer clothes on mannequins visible through the windows. The shinobi store's insides were dark with lots of blacks and grays, while the civilian shop was white with pinks and light blues. Deciding between the two was like deciding what kind of day you were going to have.

He didn't know why, but seeing her try to decide between the two stores had him wait before he confronted her outright. Such indecision on her part was sure to result in something fun and regretful, right? Something he could hold over her for as long as she lived.

Her fists clenched hard before she decided on the civilian store, hiding her headband in a pocket. Naruto followed her through the door after he put on a transformation to make him look like Naruko. Kurotsuchi only got about 5 steps in before a woman in a store uniform walked up to her with a patently fake, toothy smile and asked "Hello, are you looking for anything in particular?"

Kurotsuchi's head was on a swivel as she superficially looked all over the store. "Y-Yeah, er, no, I mean. I'm just… looking." She spoke like she was nervous, or even worse, embarrassed. It was a far cry from the brusque girl he almost got into a shouting match only an hour or so ago.

Kurotsuchi walked stiffly over to the women's section and stared at all the dresses on the mannequins. Not knowing that she was being watched, her face went through the gamut of expressions. From apprehension, to judging, to surprised, to thoughtful, to wary. She always ended up going back to a one tucked away to the side: a modest white summer dress with a simple pattern. She stood in front of it for a very long time, biting the insides of her cheek before she finally got a replica near the model and fast-walked to the changing room.

Oh, this was perfect. The foul-mouthed tomboy had a penchant to the more stereotypically feminine pursuits, and better yet, was ashamed about it? Naruto wasn't going to let this go. He was going to tease her relentlessly. Maybe then she would think better about bad-mouthing the prankster king of Konoha. In fact, ideas were already running through his head about how to prank her to hell and back.

Naruko grabbed a random dress and followed after her, getting into the dressing room adjacent to Kurotsuchi. Kurotsuchi really put new meaning to speed. She was in there for all of five seconds before coming out of the room. He'd even been planning on making rustling sounds as if he were putting the dress on. Realism was what sold pranks, after all.

The boy transformed as a women poked his head out to see Kurotsuchi standing at the opposite end of the dressing room, where there was a semi-circle of mirrors arranged so that she could see all angles of herself

Kurotsuchi busied herself with looking into the mirrors with a few backward glances and straightening out the dress. Her face had a mixture of apprehension and fear, like she was scared someone she knew would pop out of nowhere and see her at an embarrassing state.

Too bad for her that was exactly what was going to happen.

Naruko walked up behind Kurotsuchi and clapped a hand on her shoulder. "No, no, your stance is all wrong."

Kurotsuchi visibly recoiled from the clone's touch. "And you are?" She asked, very irritated that anyone had acknowledged her as existing at that moment in time.

Naruko smiled. "Name's… uhh… Sakura. Haruno Sakura." Naruko's name was too similar to Naruto and they already had a resemblance going on, so he made it up on the fly.

Kurotsuchi scrunched her eyebrows together. "Sakura… that sounds familiar."

"It's a common name here."

"Huhh…" Kurotsuchi seemed to buy that excuse and turned back to the mirror. Her eyebrows were still scrunched, but more out of consternation than suspicion. "What were you talking about?"

"You're trying to impress a boy, aren't you?"

First confusion, then an unwillingness to tell the truth because it would take too long and she was talking to what boiled down to a stranger went across her face. "Erm… yeah, sure, let's go with that. Anyway, what's wrong with my stance?"

Naruko backed up and looked her up and down. "You're too stiff. You look like you're about to pounce on someone."

Kurotsuchi nodded and bounced on her heels a little bit, taking in deep breaths of air. "Yeah, yeah I guess you're right. H-How do you do it? Like, you know, look… girly."

Naruko smiled. He almost felt bad for what he was doing. Almost. "First try smiling."

Kurotsuchi did and it looked bad. Bad to the point where Naruko had to use all the willpower he had not to burst out laughing. "Okay… that's- that's good. Just try to think of something funny."

Kurotsuchi's face morphed into frustration before she relaxed herself and tried again. Naruto wished he had a camera to commemorate the event. But those were bulky, expensive, and hard to carry out anywhere.

"W-Why don't you just try a pose, then? Doesn't have to be serious. It can just… eh, warm you up." Naruto was going to have to make an award ceremony if only to give him the medal of 'World Class Bullshiter'.

Kurotsuchi put one hand on the side of her head and one on her hip then tried to smile.

Naruko burst out laughing despite his body's earnest struggle to keep calm. He laughed and laughed until Kurotsuchi looked at him like he was an insane person. She'd looked about as ridiculous as a bear in a tutu. "What the hell's your problem."

"Oh… oh, oh _dearest_ , I'm just having the most fun I think I've ever had in my life." Naruto undid the transformation as he doubled over from the laughter.

Kurotsuchi's face turned bright red from a mixture of embarrassment and supreme anger. When Naruto saw this happen, he pointed at her face and starting laughing harder. She cracked her knuckles very harshly, starting the process of ramping down Naruto's natural high. "Any last words before I encase you in cement for the rest of your godforsaken life?" She asked in a low voice.

Naruto held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah," He took in a deep breath. "Wooh. Sure you can do whatever you want, but only after I tell you something."

"Speak."

"Granny's making the announcement at noon. So be at the kage administration at around then."

"That it?"

Naruto shrugged with a 'please for the love of god, punch me in the face' face. "Yeah, but it's not like it really matters. I'm a cl-"

Without Kurotsuchi having done anything, the Naruto clone dispelled mid-sentence. At first, she thought it was a deliberate move on his part to escape her wrath, but then she felt a sort of malice begin to permeate through the air.

She'd felt that sort of feeling before. It made her forget all the righteous fury that had been building in her body until that moment. It made her uneasy, then somewhat frightened. She dashed through the dressing room to see the various workers of the shop milling back and forth with frightened and worried expressions on their faces. They could feel it too, but they also knew that there wasn't anything exploding or the roars of great beasts that had become familiar to them, even if they had only heard it on one occasion.

It was demonic, unrestrained chakra.

Kurotsuchi began to feel real, unbridled fear.

00000000

7:44

The Naruto clone was, for lack of a better word, starting to feel good. He couldn't really put a finger on the why's, when's, or how's, just that when he was with Fu, he felt happier. It didn't take long for him to find Fu, in fact, it was more Fu who found him, and when they met, he decided to take her on a tour of Konoha. She was bubbly and happy and interesting and not just easy to talk to, but fun to talk to. He laughed a lot when he was with her. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so comfortable around someone. And that was only adding onto the fact that they had only been really interacting for about an hour or so.

It was like she wore her heart on her sleeve. She desperately wanted to connect to people and to have fun with them. He couldn't think of another person who was as much alike as him in personality than her. Perhaps that age-old adage of 'opposites attract' really was bogus. Because he was really starting to like her.

Currently, there were resting on top of the fourth Hokage's monument head eating a boxed breakfast from a vendor. The rising sun gave them a really good view of the village. The sky was blue, there were a few clouds rolling through the sky, and the birds chirped happily in the breeze.

Fu finished her food, set aside her box, and leaned back against the monument, holding her stomach in comic satisfaction. "That hits the spot," she said.

Naruto sat back as well and let out a loud burp. "Damn straight."

Fu giggled. "That was a good one. Wait, let me try." She cleared her throat and sucked in her breath. Naruto waited in mock anticipation for several seconds until one of the loudest and longest belches he had ever heard outside of an Akamichi feast belted out from her stomach.

Naruto laughed once she was done. "That was impressive."

Fu smiled. "Damn straight."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before Naruto tiled his head towards her. "Hey, what's that red tubey thing on your back anyway?"

"My colony."

Naruto ah'd as if he'd understood it before his brain processed what she had said in full. "Your colony?"

Fu smiled smugly and put her hands behind her head. "My tailed beast is the seven-tailed beetle, so I can talk to bugs. The ones I like I keep on my back."

"So… like the Aburame?"

"Hmm… a little bit. They mostly keep to one type of bug though. I can keep all types of bugs."

"And… you can do this because of your demon?"

Fu hummed an affirmative. "All the tailed beasts give us cool abilities. Or at least that's what I've heard. The only other Jinchuuriki I've met in person are you and Yugito."

Naruto cupped his chin. "What's my cool ability then?"

Fu shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you ask?"

"Ask who?"

She poked him in the belly, where he had mentioned his seal was. "The guy in your gut."

Naruto laughed fully and heartily, until he realized she was being serious. "He wants to take over my body. Of course I'm not going to ask. And even I wanted to and could do that, he, or it, is just a mass of evil chakra, right?"

Fu frowned a little bit. "Evil? Tailed beasts aren't evil. Chomei's really nice. Maybe Mr. Ninetails is kinda a meanie, but that doesn't mean _you_ can't try to be nice."

Naruto sat forward and held his head in his hands. "Maybe…"

Fu thought for a moment before a lightbulb went off in her head. "Hey, wanna see something else I can do?"

Naruto turned to look at her. He began to say "Sure," but was dispelled halfway through.

Fu, for her part, was somewhat shocked by this. This shock only stuck around long enough for the feeling of malignant chakra to wash over her. She stood up on the monument and created wings from her chakra, what she had been planning to show him before he dispelled, then took to the air.

It didn't take her long to see off in the training fields a huge swath of trees get turned to cinders and ash as a blue streak of fire zipped around a red streak of solid chakra.

Naruto and Yugito had gotten into their beast forms.

Fu felt a deep and profound worry grow in her gut.

 **AN/ I've got the story name changed. Thanks to Djflemse for the title name**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

In his defense, Naruto never thought it would escalate the way it did. He just really wanted to win is all. Perhaps it was because he'd been under a little too much stress as of late, or that there wouldn't ever be a future with him and Sakura, or the simple fact that he was still feeling the lingering grogginess and associated grumpiness that came with very little sleep, or even-

Wait, no. Naruto knew exactly why it escalated the way it did. It was because he wanted to wipe that smirk off her face. So haughty and smug. It didn't matter that Yugito didn't look a thing like Sasuke, because whenever he saw that look, that look brimming with a superiority that didn't have to be stated outright because it was just known by everyone, he was a kid again in the academy trying his best to stand up against the Uchiha's overwhelming power that seemed to come out of nowhere. He hated that smirk more than anything in his life. It reminded him of everything he used to be that he wanted to leave behind.

As soon as the leaf touched the ground between then, Naruto rushed forward and tried to punch her in the face, such was his consternation. She parried the blow away, stepped forward, and planted a knee into his stomach, launching him backwards a few feet.

Naruto coughed up some spit, got his balance back and let his nose curl into a semi-snarl. "You call that an attack?" he asked.

Her smirk only grew in scope and scale. "No, I don't."

Naruto breathed out slowly and rushed right back at her again. He found that she was right to be confident in her strength at least, but not enough that he would concede defeat so easily. Whether it was because of her being a Jinchuuriki to a cat beast or not, her flexibility was far and away echelons above anything or anyone he had fought before. She contorted her limbs around in ways that would break or pop out of socket to any normal person. This meant that not only did he barely touch her throughout their spar, it meant that he couldn't predict the way she moved with any regularity and also meant that he got more strikes underneath the neck than he had been preparing for. She wasn't lying about that previous jab either. She hit hard and she hit mean.

Any normal man would have seen his obvious disadvantage and conceded defeat then and there, lest they become any more bruised and battered than they already were, except Naruto knew about his strengths and weaknesses. He might get batted around like a yarn ball in any straight taijutsu fight, but he could continue to get batted around ad infinitum. He had endurance and he had the will to never give up, even for things one might consider to be petty. Most importantly, however, he wasn't against tricking his opponents.

WHA-PAHM.

Over the course of thirty seconds, Naruto had made it appear that his arms were becoming heavier and heavier, until they reached below his face, creating a faux opening that Yugito took full advantage of. Already, he was getting a feel for her fighting style. She struck at what was most painful or what was most debilitating. An open face was like catnip to her. She couldn't resist it.

Naruto crumpled and got to one knee, his smirk hidden by his downturned head and sweat-logged hair.

Yugito was breathing hard as she stopped before him, one neuron blast away from sending a leg crashing down on his exposed neck. She had to remind herself that it was just a spar. He looked to be down for the count. That might teach him to be too arrogant around her. Still though, he could take a punch. If he got any better, he'd be a good workout. Better than any wooden dummy, that was for sure.

"Are you o-"

CRACK.

Her world suddenly turned sideways and upside-down. Her cheek was smarting with pain and there was blood on her tongue. Another punch rocked her world, this time to the other side, before she planted both feet on the ground and pounced away from him.

They stood up, several meters apart, both worn by the battle, but only one tired from it. Yugito wiped the blood/drool that was flowing out of her lips and straightened out her back, trying her best to get oxygen back into her body. He was standing as tall and confident as ever, not perturbed by the least from the plethora of bruises forming all over his body or the intense fight they just had.

"That was dirty," she said, a full-on snarl marring her face.

Naruto shrugged with a half-cocked smile. "We all have to play to our strengths."

Yugito's snarl quickly turned to a smile that knew more than he did. "You've got that right," she muttered, only barely audibly, before her finger and toenails grew in size until they were all the length of kitchen knives and, from the way her toenails sunk into the ground whenever they touched it, appeared to be just as sharp.

Naruto saw this and took half a step back. "No ninjutsu," he said seriously.

"No ninjutsu," Yugito parroted back at him. And it wasn't, not technically at least. It used chakra, but she never had to do signs for it. It was just something that she could do.

The boy's face took on a tinge of fear, only making the smile on Yugito's face race upwards more. She wasn't going to cut him up too bad. Not enough to leave permanent damage anyways. Just enough to get him to surrender.

Maybe a little more for those cheap shots.

Yugito's claws dug into the ground as she got on all fours. The grass between him and her flung away as she raced towards him with all the ferocity and lethality of a big cat. Naruto ducked under the first slash, blocked the second slash with his forearm, and caught the third between his torso and his other arm, making him wide open for the fourth slash to swing upwards and rake across his chest.

"Fuck!" Naruto spat out as he gripped her arm and flung her away like an oddly shaped kettle bell.

She hit the ground crouched on all fours with a wide smile on her face. "Give up," she said.

Naruto shook his head. "I never give up."

Yugito sunk her nails back into the ground. "Then prepare to be cut up."

This loop happened a few more times. Yugito would pounce forward, wound him, then jump back and reevaluate him. Her fighting style had changed to less of that of a cat's, and more like a shark's. She wasn't hurting him with anything more than seriously painful cuts and barbs, then circled around him like a shark waiting for its meal to die.

Almost every inch of his body had long cuts or small holes leaking blood. Everything from the neck down was a reddened mess of angry skin drenched in sweaty blood. He was being thousand-cut to death.

Yugito's jaws clenched a few times. They'd been going at it for a while and he was still standing. Any more and she might get in trouble for spousal abuse. "Give up!" She spat out again, this time with more desperation.

Naruto got to his full height and stared back at her. "I never give up!" he said, just as resolute as ever.

Yugito was breathing hard. She was going to have to stop this soon. No more playing around. She had to knock him out and drag him to a medic asap. His resilience was going to be the death of him if he let it. Her claws dug into the ground and her body flung forward claws first.

She aimed her first strike at his chest, but he ducked down at the last second until his head and face were about to be struck by her claws. A cold grip of fear latched onto her stomach and didn't let go for a fraction of a second.

The window might have been small, but Naruto took full advantage of it. He grabbed her outstretched hand and twirled around, using her momentum to slam her into the ground. As quickly as he could, he sat on her torso with knees on either side of her chest. She tried to strike him with the arm that wasn't being held, but Naruto caught that one too. On a good day, she was stronger than him, but the fight had worn on to the point where her muscles ached with exertion.

Naruto planted both of her hands on either side of her head and brought his forehead crashing down on her nose. The first time it happened, she was shocked enough that a second one could land. She tried to wriggle her way out of his hold, but his forehead kept on crashing down on her face and head, making her lose focus as a flash of pain and shock derailed her brain every two seconds. Soon, their faces were drenched in a mixture of both blood types.

Perhaps it was then that Yugito drew on the power of Matatabi. She didn't mean to do it. Her body reacted faster than her mind, both when the power came back to her to overpower him, and when she sunk all ten nails deep into his torso.

They were like that for a still pause, both wondering if what had happened had truly happened.

It was only when Naruto realized he had been skewered that red chakra came forth from his body and engulfed his skin.

00000000

There was a blank space in both their memories after that. How long they fought, they couldn't tell. Naruto was engulfed in a rage not totally unknown to him and Yugito was consumed by fear and anxiety. Her mastery over Matatabi's chakra was brute-forced and unlike Bee's and Gyuki's. She had never really gotten a hang of defeating her negative emotions. The best she could do was to still them momentarily before engaging in battle. When they came crashing onto her without warning, she lost control.

The simple fact that she didn't have complete control over Matatabi's chakra was an endless pool of shame to her. Whenever she blanked, which thankfully hadn't happened in years until now, she always woke up with the fear that she had hurt or killed somebody important to her.

It was the sudden and alarming realization that she couldn't move anymore that consciousness returned to her. Yugito's arms and legs were held in place by what felt like wood and her head was lolling down uselessly.

"YUGITO!"

Even bringing her head up to look up at the furious face of the Raikage made her entire body light up with pain. "RRrrr…" She tried to ask what was happening, but her words turned into strangled mumbles. The kind of pain she was in wasn't the worst she had ever felt, but it was vying for a close second.

Ai took it upon himself to grab her forehead so that she could look into his directly. "WHAT HAPPENED?!" he screamed.

Yugito's eyes flickered from side to side a few times. They were still in the training fields, but it looked like one that went through the wringer. Huge gauges of earth had been ripped from the ground and there were patches of blackened earth where the fire had eaten away. "Ahh- I…" her voice was coming back, but her mind was still reeling.

Ai backed out of the way, allowing Yugito to see her opponent strung up much the same way she was, in a tangle of branches holding his legs together and his arms to the side. His lower body was obscured by the frantic back of Tsunade and by his side was Jiraiya, who was biting the side of his finger with a worried expression. There was a green glow coming emanating from somewhere in front of Tsunade, putting a light green glow to whatever pallid skin still remained. Naruto's body had entire parts of where his skin was burnt away, showing enflamed muscle underneath.

"WHO'S FAULT WAS THIS!" Ai yelled at Yugito again.

"This isn't the time or the place!" Jiraiya yelled back.

Ai whipped around. "You assured me he was stable! If it was him that hurt Yugito-"

"She's barely conscious! And how can we rule out that it wasn't her fault in this!?"

"You would dare to-"

"QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!" Tsunade shouted out. There was a slight break in her voice. Yugito couldn't see the Hokage's face, but she could practically feel the tears falling down the woman's face.

The sounds of a bug's buzzing came upon her from behind until Fu dropped from the sky between them, wings folding back into her back. Her afraid, ashen face switched between Yugito and Naruto a few times, unsure of who deserved the most worry and attention.

This was bad. She fucked up big time. This was no time to be shifting the blame on him. The only thing left was to tell the truth and apologize. She'd let her arrogance obscure her pride and this was the price. She promised to try her best to get along with him and this was the result? What was she, a toddler?

Yugito coughed out whatever blockage remained in her throat and opened her mouth to speak. Everyone's eyes were on her, except for Tsunade, who was listening intently. "R-Raikage-sama. T-the truth is that-"

"-It was my fault."

Everyone whipped around to look at Naruto, eyes cracked barely open and a pained grimace on his face. Despite the no-doubt huge amount of pain he was in, Yugito could tell the grimace was fueled by shame rather than pain. Did he think it was really his fault? How much did he remember?"

"What did you just say?" Ai asked dangerously.

Naruto coughed again. "W-We were sparring and I lost control. I didn't mean to. It just happened."

Ai pointed his attention towards Jiraiya. "You told me he was under control."

"He wa- He _is_ under control. This is just- This is just a freak accident is all," Jiraiya said with a mixture of fear, desperation, and self-defense. "And he's not the only one who's at fault here. I was under the impression that your Jinchuuriki had lost control as well! Look at her, she's barely conscious."

"You would attack my Jinchuuriki to cover up the mistakes of your own?!"

"Hey!" Fu barked out.

Everyone pointed their ire at Fu, who stood proud and tall through it all. She made a 'ramp down' gesticulation with her arms. "Let's all just calm down here. It's not easy being a Jinchuuriki, you know. Sometimes you lose control even though you didn't mean to. Plus, we're all only just getting to know each other. It's better that this happened now. We know our limits."

Ai huffed. "I know better than anyone what it's like being a Jinchuuriki. My own brother is one-"

"But _you_ aren't." Fu said, interrupting him and pointing a finger at his chest. "This isn't anybody's fault. It happens."

"No!" Yugito coughed out, sense finally seeming to come to her. "I was, uhm… He asked me to help him control his powers. I wasn't being vigilant enough and he lost control. It was my fault, not his."

Jiraiya whistled appreciatively. "Hear that?"

Ai's eyes narrowed. "And the boy saying it was a spar?"

"It- It was a spar," Naruto said quickly, eyes darting between Yugito and Ai a few times. "That's how she was teaching me. I accidentally hurt her pretty bad, so she didn't have a choice but to use her powers too."

Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ground, sighing. "It's not like there's any real damage here. Nobody got hurt-"

"I got hurt," Naruto said weakly.

"Quiet boy!" Jiraiya hissed out. "Anyways, like I was saying, nobody got hurt. Collateral damage was minimal. Why don't we just file this away as a training mishap?"

Ai looked between the two restrained Jinchuuriki a few times before huffing and walking off without saying a word before vanishing in a flash of lightning.

Tsunade let a sigh of relief puff through her lips. Naruto's skin was rapidly healing to the point where it was almost like he'd never been hurt before in his life, but his eyes were fluttering close, betraying a deep exhaustion he was only barely staving off.

There was a tense few seconds of silence before Jiraiya clapped his hands and said "Okay Tenzo, you can stop now."

Yugito lurched and fell to her feet, now unrestrained by the bondage that held her. She rubbed her raw wrists without daring to look at how Naruto was doing. A man wearing an ANBU mask she guessed was Tenzo walked towards Tsunade who dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

Tsunade stood up straight with one of Naruto's arms draped around her shoulders and turned to Yugito. Her face was that of the austere, composed, and headstrong Hokage, but it was threatening to give way to a plethora of emotions. "Thank you," Tsunade said quietly. Her tone was betraying her face. "I know it was hard to lie to your commander. If he found out Naruto was prone to losing control to the Kyuubi, he would have demanded a better deal. It would have set our negotiations back to square one."

Yugito was wobbly on her feet, but she could hold herself up just fine. Strength was returning to her rapidly thanks to Matatabi. She couldn't raise her head to look at Tsunade. The shame was too great. "No- It's… uhm… I really did lose control there. I shouldn't've. I really am to blame."

Fu shook her head. "I doubt that's true. If you were telling the truth, then the blame is shared."

Yugito raised her hand to protest more, but it fell down quickly. If the lie was believed and effective, then it didn't need to be nullified for the truth. Especially when the details were inconsequential. Yugito also had a sneaking feeling that everything would be worse off if she decided to tell the whole truth. She decided instead to walk forward and take Naruto's full weight on her body, grunting a little from the exertion.

"Are you okay to do that?" Tsunade asked warily.

"Yeah," Yugito said, nodding quickly. Her pupils turned to slits as her body started drawing on more of Matatabi's chakra. She stood up straight and held him tightly to her side. His feet were practically dragging on the ground. "Don't worry. I'll take him to the house."

Tsunade looked at the two of them warily. Naruto was of the resilient sort. Now that his injuries were healed, he mostly needed some R&R. "Just make sure he's awake and at the kage tower by at least noon," Tsunade warned. "Let him sleep until then."

Yugito nodded and set off to the house at a somewhat slow walk.

Fu got into a hover and followed them. "I could carry him back. It'd be faster," She said enticingly.

Yugito shook her head. "No. I have to do this."

Fu thought about arguing her point more, but Yugito didn't even have to look at her to let it be known that she was going to be stubborn on this one. After biting her cheek for a few seconds, Fu flew off to help spread the word to all the panicked people that nothing was wrong. It was a conditioned response to do it back at waterfall whenever she accidentally succumbed to her emotions within a certain distance of the village.

Once they were alone, Yugito shifted Naruto onto her back, where his body lost all of its tension. His head lolled onto her shoulder, unable to be kept up with his neck anymore. He might have been heavy, but she was strong.

 **'** **My, my, what a display.'**

Yugito hung her head down even further. Her cheeks burned with the combined embarrassment and shame. 'I know,' she thought back. 'I really screwed the pooch this time, didn't I?'

She had an unsubstantiated mental image of Matatabi playing around with a large ball of yarn while she talked. She always had this tone about her as if she doing something that didn't take many mental faculties while she spoke. **'** **Oh, I don't know. That Fu girl was right for the most part. The blame is shared.'**

'And it rests mostly on my shoulders.' Yugito thought back. Naruto shifted his head on her shoulderblades into a more comfortable position. 'No pun intended.'

 **'** **You're too hard on yourself kitten. Maybe your pride is part of the blame in this, but that boy should have known better than to stick out a fight he couldn't win just to prove a point. Especially considering the both of your conditions, i.e. Kurama and I."**

'That doesn't change anything,' Yugito replied. "I was the more mature one-"

"Huh?" Naruto asked blearily from her back.

Oh shit, did she say that out loud? "J-Just go back to sleep," she said hurriedly.

Naruto let out a pained moan. "I was never asleep. Can't walk on my own is all. Wouldn't let you carry me otherwise."

 **'** **Oh, just ask him what he thinks then. If it really was your fault, he could have thrown you under the bus, but he didn't.'**

'I can't do that.'

 **'** **Yes you can.'**

'No, I can't! I almost killed him not five minutes ago!'

 **'** **Are you going to let your social awkwardness dictate your life.'**

"I am not socially awkward!"

Naruto jostled on her shoulder from the sudden outburst. "What?" he asked.

Yugito nearly tripped on a loose stone. The grass was turning into a dirt road. She was making pretty good time on her way to the house. "I- I… I was talking to Mata," Yugito said lamely.

"What, is that like your imaginary friend?"

The tips of her ears were burning from the assumed embarrassment. "No, she's the two-tails. Sometimes I switch from mentally speaking to her to physically talking. That's it."

Naruto grunted an affirmation then settled back into her shoulder. After five minutes of plodding down the street with indecision clawing at her mind, Yugito finally built up the courage to ask "W-Why did you… cover for me?"

"Huh?" Naruto grunted.

Yugito gulped hard. "I was the first one to lose control. Then I… If you weren't a Jinchuuriki, you would've died. That wasn't… that was my fault, but you took the blame. Why did you do that?"

It appeared as though Naruto still had the energy to let loose a deep sigh into her shoulder if nothing else. "I was being an asshole. It was just supposed to be a spar, but I took it way too far. It was my fault you did that." His tone was clipped and resigned. His jubilance was gone from more than just a lack of energy. He didn't feel good about what he did either.

Yugito shook her head. "No it wasn't. I'm not supposed to lose control. I should've called the match."

"How could you have? I was… bashing your head in with my head. Even if you tapped out, I wouldn't have known it. I was being an asshole. It _was_ my fault."

Yugito gulped again. "I escalated the spar."

"So did I."

The street began to turned to a semi-paved road. People starting popping up on the road and each and every one of them stopped to stare at them. She was used to the looks and the whispers of subtle disapproval, but these took it up a notch. It was probably a confluence of factors that made them stop and stare, but the harshness of the glares made her realize that his life probably was too peachy either. "I… I'm sorry," Yugito said after a few more minutes of walking.

"Huh? For what?"

"I was being- I was _acting_ , like a child. You have it hard too. I shouldn't have goaded you."

Naruto sighed again. "It's fine. I was being a pill too."

"And also for… you know, threatening you last night."

If Naruto had the energy to raise his eyebrows, they'd hitting his hairline. This new meek Yugito was more than a surprise.

"And..." Yugito started. She'd been wanting to ask this question, but her mind kept blocking he from doing so. "How did you know I'd lock up if I tried to hit you in the face?"

If Naruto could have shrugged indifferently, he would have. "I didn't. You were pretty keen on hitting below the head, so I just assumed you didn't want anyone to know how much I got the shit kicked out of me. I took a risk and it paid off."

They were in front of the door to the house when Naruto put his palms on her shoulders and hopped off her back. He stumbled under his own weight, to which Yugito looped an arm under his armpit and held him up.

"Erm, thanks," Naruto said, blinking rapidly to get the stars out of his eyes.

"No problem," Yugito said quietly, opening the door and walking in.

They couldn't get two steps in before Fu flew up from the couch and stopped in front of them. "Are you guys okay? Do you need help-"

"He just needs rest," Yugito said quickly, cutting Fu off mid-sentence and walking down the hallway. Naruto only needed to hold onto her for the balance now, but even so, he was snug against her side. Not that he was complaining. He wasn't about to turn down help from someone offering it, even if that person had almost killed him.

Temari walked out from a hallway with wide, searching eyes and watched them shamble upstairs, where the rooms were. She didn't say anything to them or offered help of any kind. They shared a look she was used to seeing very often at her home: silent disapproval directed to the self.

The first door they opened, they found Kurotsuchi lounging on a bed with a penguin sleeping cap firmly planted on her head as she pored over an open scroll. She looked up and raised a tired eyebrow. "Yes?" she asked.

"This is his room," Yugito said tiredly. She wasn't in any mood for a verbal back-and-forth between the two of them. "Beat it."

Kurotsuchi put her hands behind her head and leaned back. "No, I claimed this room. It's mine."

One of Yugito's eyes twitched. "He needs to rest. This is the room whe-"

"It's fine," Naruto mumbled out, his tired eyes searching the room and finally settling on Kurotsuchi. "I'm sorry, by the way," he said flatly.

Kurotsuchi looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"For uhm…" Naruto put his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he searched for the right words. "For making fun of you for the dress. You're sensitive about that and I'm sorry.

Kurotsuchi's eyes narrowed. "You'd damned well better be. Go sleep in the last room. I'm pretty sure Fu hasn't gotten to it yet."

Naruto nodded and leaned away from the door, prompting Yugito to follow. "Oh," he said, grabbing the doorway at the last second and peeking his head in "You looked really pretty," he said with the confidence of a man half-asleep and with nothing much to lose.

The two of them vacated the door quick enough that he didn't get to see her purse her lips with a small flare of red reach the tips of her ears, nor when she quietly muttered "Asshole."

The next room they opened had scrolls open all over the floor with a couple of battle fans open and spread out over them. There was a pair of crumpled clothes balled up on one side of a disordered bed. "Temari's," Yugito murmured, drawing back with him.

Opening another one, they saw a bed with a few different pairs of battle dresses, all with varying degrees of navy blue to them and dress lines. The top of the dresser already had an assortment of hygiene products with a few bottles used for prescription medicine among them. "Mei's," Naruto muttered.

The last one they opened up had a bustling nest of bugs on the bed all somehow managing to not eat each other. Other than that, there were a few stacks of books on the floor with a couple cracked open to pages that had been oft doggy-eared.

Fu flew up them with a hurry from the downstairs once she realized what was happening. "Er, I'm sorry. I- He said last night that- er, I… I'll get this all moved out."

"No," Yugito said, shaking her head. "It'll take too long. He'll sleep in my room."

"Are you sure?" Both Naruto and Fu asked in synchronism, albeit with varying degrees of speed and tone.

"Yeah," Yugito nodded, bringing Naruto along with her before he could say no. "It's fine."

 **'** **My, how bold of you kitten. To offer up your bed to such a strapping young lad. I'm shocked.'**

"Oh, shut up," Yugito said, most definitely not in the mood for her light teasing.

"What?" Naruto asked.

Yugito shook her head. "It's nothing."

She had to work on that. Although the things she let slip through her lips so far had been somewhat mild, there were times back in cloud that things were let loose that she most certainly did not want known to the general public. Luckily, they were often so unbelievable that even if a chatty Cathy had heard her say it, nothing got sent around the village as a rumor.

Yugito let him slide off her and into the bed she had claimed in a slump. He didn't even take off his clothes or get under the covers before his eyes rolled shut and his breathing slowed.

 **'** **The boy did have a point, you know.'** Matatabi said in her brain.

'And what was that?' Yugito asked as she sat in a chair next the bed, cupping her cheek in her hands.

 **'** **You're always taking things a bit too seriously. There were other ways of letting him know you weren't going to have sex with him than threatening his life.'**

'I didn't threaten it,' Yugito thought back defensively. 'I wasn't seriously going to do it.'

 **'** **That's not the point here. You're never going to make friends if you take things so seriously. The boy's got a good sense of humor. He's strong and handsome, if in a bit of a childish sort of way.'**

'I don't need friends and I definitely don't need you playing matchmaking. I'm more than a decade older than him anyways. That's just… wrong.'

 **'** **Oh, kitten, I'm not telling you to fuck him. Just… be nice to him. Try. You said you were going to try, didn't you?'**

Yugito looked down on his sleeping face, contorted into a silly expression from being compressed on one side, and couldn't help but let a small smile come to her lips. The demon cat was right, for once. Why would she act like a bitch to one of only maybe nine people in the world who could really know what it was like to be in her shoes?

She reached over and tucked his bangs behind his ears. And he was sort of cute, in a puppy dog sort of way.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Naruto was jolted awake from a strike to his thigh. He was stumbling on his bed halfway through a sad excuse for a fighting stance, delirious and tired by the time he realized his attacker was a girl a few years older than him smirking at him from the doorway to his room. On the bed was a remote of some sort, and the strike he had suffered felt distinctly remote-like.

"You sleep like a rock," Kurotsuchi said in a deriding tone.

Naruto sighed and started to rub the sleep from his eyes. "Why'd ya wake me?"

"We're gonna be late for the announcement. Get your ass out of bed and downstairs."

Naruto lifted the inside of shirt a smidge and sniffed, then immediately recoiled from the smell. It was absolutely toxic. And it made sense too. He'd been wearing those clothes for two days straight, hadn't bathed for a while due to him being on the road with Jiraiya and then in a house with five other women that he didn't know, and there was also the fight with Yugito, which got out of hand in a hurry.

"Yeah, no. I need a shower."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms over her chest, deriding smile not slacking at all. "You're damn right you do. Better make it quick, though. It's almost noon."

Naruto got up and stretched out his sore muscles once Kurotsuchi was out of his sight. 'Wait a minute,' he thought suddenly, going stiff mid-pose. 'Who put my shirt back on for me?'

He remembered taking it off to train and he remembered it was back on when he was on Yugito's back… Naruto shrugged. It's not like it mattered. He stumbled out of the room and went into the nearest bathroom, stripping off his clothes with slight consternation. The sweat had stuck them to his skin like an adhesive, and taking them off let a waft of stink to rise into the air. Without wasting another second, Naruto hopped into the shower and turned the nearest knob he could see, then let out a somewhat waifish scream as boiling hot water immediately pelted his body from above.

That wasn't how the shower worked back at his apartment.

Naruto started turning knobs whichever which way made the boiling stop. He successful made side jets spring to life, started and stopped the bath nozzle, and tinted the water with the refreshingly nose-clogging scents of lavender.

"What the hell is WRONG with this shower!?" Naruto ground out, taking a few moments to get the water levels to his liking, or more accurately to where he could put up with them. And if that meant showering himself off with the lukewarm water from side jets while cloaked in the choking scent of flowers, so be it.

He grabbed the nearest bottle with the word 'soap' on its label and rubbed its contents on his body, basking in the glory that was the feeling of odor being washed down the drain. Ever since being on the road with Jiraiya, he couldn't help but obtain a newfound appreciation for being clean, especially when he had to deal with old man stink for months on end.

Though that didn't mean he wanted to be in that clusterfuck of a shower for a second longer than he had to. He stepped out as soon as he felt he was clean enough and nearly stumbled on the ground. Although a lot the aches and pains from his 'training session' had vanished and he was less tired, there were still a lot of things that kept his physicality from being 100%. That, added with being in a boiling shower for too long, had left him woozy and unable to stand on his own. He grabbed onto the sink counter and held himself up as he stared into the mirror. Somehow, it hadn't fogged up, letting him see his face clearly.

It was in that moment, while staring at his own face, logged down with water, and almost blacking out, that things finally started to click in place, for better or for worse. He was going to have to accept the reality he was in. He was going to have to accept that he was going to be living with Kurotsuchi and the rest of them. He wasn't going to find love. If he had any kids, they'd be kids from women he didn't even know. His freedom was restricted. He didn't even know how he was going to live his life from now on. It was probably going to change a lot, but how? Was he even to take missions anymore? Was he just a tool used to advance peace throughout the nations? He didn't know how he felt about those things.

All those swirling negative emotions filled his brain as his body acclimated to the cold air. He didn't want to accept them. It was really really hard for him to. But he had to, nonetheless.

Just as the grips of cold reality were sinking into his heart, the door opened with a suddenness that jolted him out of his mind space. Kurotsuchi, squinting her eyes closed with an annoyed expression on her face said "When are you-" before mumbling off as her eyes were attracted downwards, where they stayed for several seconds.

Naruto, having never been peeped on before, went deer-in-the-headlights at this newfound situation for a few seconds before realizing the girl was straight up staring at his… let's call it 'delicate fifth appendage'. He grabbed a towel to cover himself with one hand and grabbed the nearest soap bottle with another one, flinging it at her head on reflex.

It clocked her in the forehead and she stumbled out, accidentally closing the door behind her with a comically exaggerated grunt. Naruto dried himself off as well as he could and fastened the towel around his waist. He grabbed his head and shook it a few times. It wasn't the time to be getting down in the dumps. One step at a time. One day at a time. Just because his life was the way it was, didn't mean he couldn't have fun with it. And it just so happened that he now had another thing he could tease the slightly older girl with.

He opened the door with a shit-eating grin on his face. Kurotsuchi was still rubbing her forehead with a wince when he said "Wow, didn't know the princess from rock was a pervert. Now I know to time out my showers when you're not around."

She growled, an embarrassed blush staining her cheeks. "I tried knocking and you didn't answer! What, were you having an existential crisis in there?"

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "What's an existential crisis?"

Kurotsuchi huffed and picked herself up without managing to look him in the eye. "It's… nevermind. Let's just get moving, alright?" She said quickly.

Naruto shook his head. This was going to be too much fun. "No way. Not until you apologize," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning his chin away from her.

It was Kurotsuchi's turn to look surprised. "What did _I_ do?" she asked incredulously.

"What did you… Well isn't it obvious?" Naruto asked with an outlandish flourish.

"No. It's not."

Naruto leaned over and got a little bit too much in her comfort bubble while staring her straight in the eyes. "You stared."

The blush that had abated somewhat over the seconds returned full force. "No I didn't!" She almost shouted.

Naruto nodded knowingly. "Oh, yes you did. And I'm not moving from this spot until you apologize."

Her lips pressed themselves into a thin line just as fire erupted in her eyes. "I am _not_ apologizing because I did _not_ stare at your tiny little prick!"

Naruto leaned back and shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, if you don't want to apologize, that's fine."

If Kurotsuchi was surprised he let it go that quickly, she didn't let it show. Her breathing began to get under control and she tried to say. "W-Well then, if that's it-"

"Unless," Naruto said, interrupting her. "That is, you want me to tell everyone that you peeked on me while I was naked, like a fucking pervert."

Her mouth curled up in a snarl at the flip of a dime. "No one will believe you."

"So you admit it!" Naruto said, pointing at her.

"I admit nothing!" Kurotsuchi all but screamed, her face starting to take a tinge of bluish purple. She looked like she was about to explode. And that wasn't a hyperbolic statement either.

Naruto turned away, hand cupping his chin as he began to walk down the corridor. "Oh, I wonder how your dear old grandpa's going to react when I tell him you were raping me with your eyes while I was having an existential crisis. I can just feel the grandfatherly disappointment now."

Putting aside the fact that he was using the term 'existential crisis' without even knowing what it meant, Kurotsuchi's eyes widened and her skin blanched, turning the red blush into a sickly pink. "NO! Don't do that!"

Naruto froze and swiveled around, smirk threatening to split his face in two. "You know, it would be pretty outlandish of a guy to accuse a girl of peeking on him. But you, you're scared of your grandpa knowing that you did for some reason. Are… Are you actually a pervert? Is peeking on men something you actually do?"

The blush took over the blanch again. Her brain was starting to short-circuit. "I-I-I It want- I was- You're not- I'm- framed. I was framed! That's all!"

Naruto scratched his head in confusion as the gibberish the girl was spewing. After a few deep breaths to recollect herself, she crossed her arms over her chest and, looking away, said "I'm sorry, okay?"

Oh, this was just too good. "Sorry for wha~t?" Naruto asked, dragging the last word out.

Her lips pressed themselves together into a thin line again. She started to murmur something out, but Naruto cupped a hand to his ear and said "I'm sorry, what was that again? Couldn't hear you."

"I'M SORRY I STARED AT YOUR DICK!" She shouted out in a burst, eyes pressed together. "NOW GET SOME FUCKING CLOTHES ON, YOU VOYEUR. WE'RE OUT IN FIVE."

Maybe hanging out with Kurotsuchi wasn't going to be so bad after all. Making her mad was just too easy and too much fun. Naruto gave her a salute and continued walking down the hall. "I'd hate to annoy the princess."

"AND STOP CALLING ME PRINCESS!"

00000000

Naruto put a hand on his forehead to block out the sun as he stepped out the door and onto the street. Was it still the same day that he got into a fight with Yugito? Didn't feel like it. Apparently Kurotsuchi didn't take too kindly to his dawdling in front of the door and shoved him forward down the steps with the heel of her foot. Naruto sort of expected something along those lines, so he managed to catch and right himself rather quickly. The best thing about it was that it gave him an excuse to launch a quip at her.

"Woah woah, princess. You're testy today. What's got your goat?"

Kurotsuchi, for her part, looked absolutely murderous. "Walk, bastard. And don't call me that."

Naruto dusted off the non-existent dust from his pants and jacket and looked back at her. "Sorry, ma'am, your royalty, your highness, but the name's stuck. You're princess for now on."

Kurotsuchi almost stomped down the steps. "Then think of another one," she ground out.

Naruto shrugged. "How 'bout Penis-Snatcher? Dick-Sniper? Phallic-Lock-On?"

Kurotsuchi let her disgust show quite clearly through her face. "Do you even know what 'phallic' means, shit-for-brains?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it means dick."

Kurotsuchi huffed and took the lead. "How the hell are you still alive? With the amount of people you've no doubt infuriated, you must be either made of lead or rubber to have made it through life so far."

Naruto put both hands behind his head and walked forward with a kick in his step. "Nope! Just gumption and stick-to-itiveness. And I'm more a pranker than a infuriater, you know. You just make too fun that I can't resist."

"Oh joy."

Looking down the streets at the people milling about their day, Naruto realized that there wasn't any sort of hurry in their step to get anywhere. He'd thought that with the hurry he was awoken with, that they were already late for the announcement. "What time is it, anyway?" he asked.

"We left at 11:30," Kurotsuchi said in a deadpan.

Naruto patted his decidedly empty belly. He hadn't had a substantial breakfast. "Have ya eaten yet?"

Kurotsuchi slowed her walking so she could tilt her head and look at him with a single, wary eye. "No…"

"Ya hungry?"

"I… yeah, I guess."

"D'ya wanna get something to eat?"

Kurotsuchi looked towards where the kage administration was. "We're going to make them wait if we do that."

Naruto shrugged. "So what? The announcement's at noon, and even if we are late a little bit, they'll just stall the speech a bit with some bullshit. Pervy-sage is probably going to do it, too. He's really good at stalling for time."

"What if we have lines to say?"

"Ahh, we're not going to have lines to say. We're here so everyone knows that it's possible that the six of us don't kill each other-"

"And you're really tempting me to prove their prior assertions right, by the way." Kurotsuchi mumbled coldly.

"…Anyway, we're up there to wave and look pretty. That means we have lunch privileges. You hungry for anything in particular?" He asked, deciding their course of action on his own.

Kurotsuchi shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Anything quick."

Naruto gave her a mega-watt grin. "A woman after my own heart. To ramen we go! Come on!" With that, Naruto launched up the rooftops and started jumping his way to his favorite ramen restaurant.

Kurotsuchi took a second to shake her head and jumped up after him. Even if war erupted tomorrow and they divorced, their marriage was going to last too long. Way too long. She had to admit that being treated with a mocking hostility was refreshing compared to how people usually interacted with her back at her home, but it was the sort of thing that she only really wanted to experience once. Sure, eating exotic foods is nice when you've been fed only oatmeal your whole life, but when you start puking your guts out, you come to understand that things are exotic for a reason.

It only took a few minutes to get to Naruto's favorite restaurant, a small ramen stand nestled into a non-descript street. It didn't look like it was bustling with activity or that it was all too different from any other ramen place. No advertisements of challenge meals or any shtick to speak of. She wondered why he seemed so happy to be going back.

She found out almost immediately when he opened the flaps and was greeted by the staff like he'd been raised by them. Banter flew back and forth almost immediately with smiles and faux consternation abound. It took her a while to realize that the slight changes in the way he acted was his real self, him around the people he was comfortable with. Sitting next to him made her feel like a person who was witnessing something she didn't have a right to. Like a stranger invited to a party with only close friends who have known each other since childhood. For a few seconds, she felt no small amount of jealously to the amount of ease and comfort with which they regarded each other.

And then she remembered him mocking her for wearing a dress and threatening to tell her grandpa that she peeked on him. Any sort of deep thoughts about the nature of his character was put on the side-burner for the sake of rekindling her already intense dislike for him.

"And you know," the old man said with his back turned to the duo as he scooped out noodles from a pot "That girl from sand, the one that was down in the dumps, ended up taking the bill. You should thank her when you have the chance."

"Ooohohohoho," Ayame said with an impish eyebrow wiggle. "And who was that girl anyway? Am I going to have to worry about more blond haired brats running around, making a mess of the village?"

Naruto laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. Kurotsuchi couldn't be sure in the sparse lighting, but she could swear she saw a light blush pop up on his cheeks. He either had a thing for Temari, which was unlikely, or the ribbing that the young woman was giving him had started to become normalized and he was just reacting the way he did when he was a kid.

From what Kurotsuchi could tell so far, the woman was kind of like a surrogate older sister and the old man filled the kindly grandpa role for him. Kurotsuchi allowed a devilish smirk to grow on her face. If she wasn't going to capitalize on this moment, then who would?

"Awww, Naru-honey~" Kurotsuchi moaned out in a perfectly acted out hyperbolic show of frustration. While she did that, she hugged both her arms around his bicep and leaned her upper body against his. He froze from the surprise mid-slurp and his face grew heated when she pressed her head against his.

He also wasn't good with women touching him. Good to know. She filed that little bit of knowledge in the back of her mind for later.

"When're you gonna introduce me to them~?" she whined out with a much higher pitched voice. She wasn't sure how it sounded to them, but her own eardrums were begging for mercy, so she could only hope that they were feeling the worst of it.

While she might not have liked the curriculum for the female-specific tasks, she did find out that she was a natural Shakespearian from them. No role was too difficult for her to do. And the annoying girlfriend routine was practically second-hat by now from all the impressions her 'friends' enjoyed.

The noodles hanging out of his mouth fell to the broth with a small plopping sound. His eyes were wide open and his mouth was pressed in a surprised line, trying to keep all the food firmly in his mouth. He was surprised. Good. She was in control of the situation.

He made a hard gulp and dumbly said, "Huh?"

"Ah-" Kurotsuchi fake chided, putting a finger to the corner of his mouth, where there was a small dribble of broth leaking. She wiped the liquid up and said "What did I say about table manners?" switching to a slightly sultrier tone before putting her broth-soaked digit in her mouth. The girl made a show of making sloppy, sucking, licking sounds as she thrust the finger in and out of her mouth at a slow pace. "That makes you a bad boy. And you know what happens when you're a bad boy…"

Kurotsuchi's eyes twitched over to the two ramen chefs for a quarter of a second. Their eyes were wide with their mouths hanging wide open. The ramen stand could be on fire and they wouldn't notice.

Perfect. Just perfect.

"What're you-" Naruto tried to get out a question before Kurotsuchi took the saliva soaked finger away from her mouth and pressed it to his in a hushing motion.

"Shh shh shh shhhhh. Oh _honey, darling, my love,_ why are you treating me so coldly? And after the sight you treated me to this morning~"

Ayame turned her head away and to the side as her cheeks lit up a crimson glow while Teuchi went back to the broth, unsure of what to say or how to act in such a situation.

Looking over to the two chef's reactions, Naruto's eyes lit up with realization as he thrust his head away from her hand and looked at the now silent ramen chefs. His eyes pressed into lines as he glared at the she-devil. "Oh, you she-devil," he muttered out.

Without breaking character, she smiled a smile that would put Satan to shame and sucked on her lower lip in a slow and sensual way as she growled out a playful mewl. Naruto slapped a hand on the table and said "Th-This is just a whole big misunderstanding," he said desperately, trying to piece back together the respect of his pseudo family that was lost from essentially bringing a whore to the dinner table.

"What's a big misunderstanding?" Kurotsuchi asked helplessly. "You said it yourself this morning. I'm just a pervert who gets off on-"

She didn't get another word out as Naruto hurriedly slapped a hand over her mouth and grinned nervously at the two over the counter as they tried to puzzle out the situation. Naruto was caught in between his inability to lie and his not wanting Ayame and Teuchi to misunderstand the situation. "She's- She's… Well, she's not lying, but she's not telling the truth either."

Kurotsuchi wiggled out of his grasp. "Ahhh, what's that supposed to mean, _honey_? Even after you made me admit my perversions, you're acting like this morning didn't even happen~"

"That's because it _didn't_ happen! At least not the way you're… you're… making it sound like!"

Kurotsuchi, still smiling like the devil, held her head in her hands and put her elbows on the table, looking to Ayame now instead. "And what do you think happened, huh?"

Ayame started spluttering out in surprised, but was interrupted by Kurotsuchi. "You know…" Kurotsuchi tilted her head down and gave the ramen chef's daughter and knowing look. "I can confirm that darling here has the largest chakra capacity I've ever seen in my life."

Ayame's embarrassed face slowly turned to one of confusion. "Wait… what's that supposed to mean?"

Naruto was looking at her too, not knowing where she was going with that one.

Kurotsuchi's smile grew until it was nearly splitting her face open. She leaned forward and put a hand to separate Naruto's view of her mouth. "It means," she whispered loudly so that everybody could hear, completely nullifying the utility of her hand cover "That he has a big di-"

"Okay then!" Naruto said loudly, slapping a hand over her mouth once more. This time though, he didn't let off and even dragged her to a stand away from the ramen restaurant. "Thanks for the food old man, just put it on my tab and don't be late for the announcement," he said as he walked off the restaurant with a patently fake smile, leaving behind two befuddled and embarrassed shop keepers.

Once they were far enough away, Naruto let his hand fall from her face and turned seriously to her. "What the hell was that?"

Her smile had abated somewhat, but the evil was still there. "You wanna play games, okay. Just don't cry when the tables are turned."

Naruto raised a finger and looked like he was about to wax indignant before his digit lost its rigidity and his back fell forward. His face was a mixture of frustration and annoyance. He spat out a curse and straightened out his back. "Okay, fair enough. I was okay with letting this stay as a one-off, but if you wanna play, then we're going to play. Now, where do you want to go now?" His eyes were squinting and the smile on his face was a challenge just waiting to be claimed.

Kurotsuchi smiled back. "You're gonna help me pick out an outfit for the announcement."

One of his eyebrows rose. "Do we have enough time?"

She nodded. "For what I'm planning, yes."

00000000

Naruto's eye twitched something fierce. In front of him, in the store he had made fun of Kurotsuchi just that morning through a clone, were five or so women with their eyes wide open as they looked at something they couldn't believe.

To be fair to his situation, he had known from the first sentence out of Kurotsuchi's mouth what her plan was. He had contented himself with the conviction that he could deftly get out of her machinations and put her in the center of embarrassment instead.

Standing, having just had his transformation explosively undone and still wearing the sparkly, ruby red evening dress with matching high heels, he had to admit that he had underestimated her. Not only had she nullified the cloth-shredding seal he always had on hand which would have rendered her half-naked in front of the patrons, but she had also maneuvered him in front of other shoppers before applying a genjutsu counter on his female transformation, leaving him crossdressing in front of the women.

When he changed clothes to that of a woman while he was Naruko, he had been planning on using it as a way to sneak the cloth-shredding seal into the she-devil's clothes without her noticing.

She noticed. She counteracted it. Then she counterattacked his counterattack.

He quickly shuffled his way to the changing room, unable to speak to the women, much less look them in the eye, and stripped out of the evening dress like his life depended on it as soon as he was in a booth.

It was only then that he realized that someone had taken his clothes. And so, he was standing in the box, in his underwear, with nothing left to put on.

It was her again.

The sound of barely constrained giggling was his only warning before the evening dress too was grabbed off the floor. He stood in that small changing room for all of five seconds, mind racing with all the things he could do to get out of that situation with his pride still intact, and came up blank.

"Hey princess?" he asked feebly.

"Yeah?" she asked, barely able to keep herself from full-belly laughing.

"If I admit defeat here, will you give me back my clothes?"

He heard her pace back and forth a few times, mulling over his proposal. "I don't know… that offer isn't really enticing, you know…"

"What if I complemented you every day for the rest of your life?"

She stopped pacing. "Oh? Give me a taste and I'll see for myself if it's worth the trouble."

Naruto had to bite the inside of his cheek from frowning too hard. It would have impeded his speech otherwise. "You… are… a goddess in human incarnate."

"I don't know… sounds a bit 'suck-uppy'."

"You are the most beautiful woman alive. Any man would be lucky to have you," Naruto said in complete monotone.

"You're going to have to be a bit more enthused than that."

Naruto ground his teeth together. "You are the wisest, smartest, strongest, most benevolent woman- No, human being alive. I am lucky to be in your presence. I would prostrate myself before you, but I have no room. If I could, I would start a religion in your honor."

She chuckled a bit from outside the changing room. "Here's the thing, I can tell you don't really mean any of that stuff..."

Naruto practically snarled and opened the door with a suddenness Kurotsuchi was not expecting. He, while still only wearing his boxer shorts, walked up to her so fast that she started backpedaling on instinct until she couldn't anymore.

She ended up with her back pressed against the wall and her arms full of the clothes Naruto had been wearing. He was close, almost dangerously so. A sudden jerk from either of them and they'd be touching in a most intimate way. For a few seconds, he did nothing but stare into her eyes, face stern, but not overly frustrated or angry. He leaned in even closer, the breath coming from his nose tickling her lips. She gulped hard and could feel sweat begin to percolate on her brow. Was this really happening? Did she push him too far?

"You…" he said slowly from the pit of his stomach. "…Have beautiful eyes."

Kurotsuchi blinked once, twice, three times, before her voice came to her. "W-What?" she asked.

He looked down to the clothes in her arms. "Was that good enough."

"I-I'm… what?"

"The compliment?" Naruto forcefully reiterated.

Kurotsuchi's brain kick started back into position. Her face was hot. Was she blushing? Why was she blushing? Hurriedly, she shoved the clothes in her arms onto him and stalked out of the changing room, where there was starting to be a small, somewhat entertained crowd of women standing around and leering at him.

He gave them a happy-go-lucky smile, gave a bullshit excuse, and went back into the changing room.

00000000

Kurotsuchi was waiting with her arms crossed over her chest in front of the building when Naruto exited as well. He had a bag with the store's logo in his hand. His face was sour and indignant.

"They made me buy the dress, by the way," he muttered in greeting. "Apparently, they don't take too kindly to crossdressing."

She shrugged like it didn't concern her. "Are we going to administration now?" she asked, refusing to meet his gaze.

He smiled like a sadist. "Not by a long shot."

She glanced at him with equal parts apprehension and confusion.

00000000

"FUUAAAUAUAUAUAUUAUAUCK YOUUUUUU NARUTOOOO UZUMAKIIII!" Kurotsuchi screamed as she jumped away from ninja dogs doing their best to play 'catch the rogue ninja'.

The Inuzuka clan member next to Naruto leaned his way a few inches and asked "Are you sure this is okay?"

Naruto nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah, she's always admired the Inuzuka clan. I think this is the happiest I've ever seen her, in fact," he said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"ONCE I GET AWAY FROM THESE FUCKING MONGRELS, I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU OPEN THREE NEW ASSHOLES, THEN I'M GONNA SHOVE YOUR HEAD UP ALL OF 'EM!"

"That doesn't seem physically possible," the Inuzuka muttered.

Naruto shook his head. "No, it doesn't."

"Are you sure she's okay with this? It doesn't seem like she's too happy."

Naruto nodded and clicked his tongue like he had forgotten to mention something prior in their conversation. "Yeah, she's a realist. She just doesn't feel right if she's not in character."

The Inuzuka shrugged. "As long as there's no diplomatic incident and the dogs get their exercise."

Naruto grinned. "I should start trying to apply that philosophy in my life. Simple. Effective. Straight-to-the-point."

"I HOPE YOU GET BALL CANCER!"

"Aren't you cutting it a bit too close for comfort as far as the announcement's going?" Naruto asked, ignoring the screaming girl entirely.

The Inuzuka member shrugged. "I'm not going. Probably not important anyway."

Naruto nodded as he gazed at the girl from rock, spewing philippics that would have made pervy-sage cringe. "Yeah, you've got a point there."

00000000

Team 8, comprised of Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuuga, were all walking down the street on their way to see what the Hokage was going to say when they happened on a most peculiar sight. Right smack dab in the middle of the street, what appeared to be a man was hanging upside down from his feet attached to a lamppost. This man was covered in a layer of sticky tar with a layer of white feathers on top. On the crown of his head was tied a red rubber glove cut in such a way that the fingers were arranged in a Mohawk-type pattern and his mouth was covered by a party hat painted yellow with a black line going across it horizontally, giving a beak-like look to it.

"Hey guys," the man mumbled. "Think you could help me down?"

Kiba squinted at the man for a few seconds before seeing the whisker marks on his cheeks and his light blue eyes. "Shit man, is that Naruto?" he asked.

The bugs around Shino buzzed for a few seconds. He gave a silent nod, confirming who it was.

Hinata blushed up a storm as Kiba cut the wire holding Naruto's feet in place. He fell in a clump on the ground and got up with all the speed one would expect from someone covered in tar. Kiba crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "Should've known that the first time I meet you in two and a half years and you're like this. Who'd you piss off this time?"

Naruto puffed out his chest indignantly. "Don't think this is a one-way thing. I'm gonna get the person who did this to me tenfold."

"I don't doubt it," Kiba mumbled. "So who was it anyway? He must've been pretty good to get one up on you."

" _She_ is," a voice from behind them said haughtily. The three of them turned around to see a triumphant-looking girl wearing the traditional shinobi wear from rock. Kiba would have guessed she was a boy were it not for the clarification sentence she gave. No small amount of that was due to the tussed-up hair, clothing covered in dog bitess, wild look in her eye, and the overwhelming scent of Inuzuka clan dogs on her body.

Kiba spoke to her, but her attention was squarely away from the dog boy. Instead, she was studying the girl with long violet hair, red face, and body language that said she was about to faint. And it had only started once she had been confronted with a tarred and feathered Naruto.

That could only mean one thing.

"Where are you guys going?" she asked the three of them, cutting Kiba off mid-sentence.

"To the Hokage's announcement," Shino said without missing a beat, cutting off Kiba's follow-up indignant repost.

Kurotsuchi sauntered up to the still reeling Naruto, sidled up to him, and planted a quick kiss on his non-tarred cheek. "Well don't be late Sakura, the surprise is going to be great," she said just before body flickering the both of them away.

The three members of team 8 were, for their part, very confused.

00000000

Naruto shoved Kurotsuchi off of him as soon as he could. "What was that about?!"

She stumbled away with her evil grin on full display. "Wanted to make your girlfriend jealous," she said simply.

Naruto's eyes scrunched in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She looked at him quizzically. "The girl with the long hair? That wasn't your girlfriend?"

Naruto shook his head emphatically. "No. It wasn't. That was Hinata. And Sakura isn't even my girlfriend."

This statement confused Kurotsuchi greatly until a flicker of realization came to her eyes. "Oh, wait. Then does that mean this Sakura chick doesn't even like you?"

Naruto's visible cheeks colored red as he averted his gaze. "Yeah, so what? We're teammates."

Kurotsuchi covered her mouth to contain her laughter. "Did you get friend-zoned? Oh, you poor, sweet child."

Naruto growled and affronted on her, though she did not back up in the slightest. "Don't talk about shit that you don't know anything about. It's more complicated than that!"

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "Whatever gets you to sleep at night," she said as she turned her body towards administration. "Seriously though, we should get going. We're totally late."

Naruto clapped a hand on her shoulder and shook his head evilly. "Oh no, we're making one more stop before we go."

Kurotsuchi's grin rose as tall as his challenge. "Okay. Better not cry to your mommy when I beat your ass, though."

Naruto's smile matched her own. "My mom's dead."

She shrugged. "So is mine."

00000000

Kakashi's feet landed on the soft grass just before three wooden posts protruding from the ground. The field was nostalgic for all sorts of reasons and brought back many memories he would rather remain quashed in the small parts of his mind, but he wasn't standing in that field for them. He was standing in front of the two teenagers he had been looking for for the better of 15 minutes.

At least Naruto was predictable in some senses. He didn't know what he would have done if Naruto and Kurotsuchi were somewhere only they knew about.

Though if it weren't for the scent of Naruto that he had become associated, he wouldn't have known it was him to begin with. Although most of the feathers had been brushed off, Naruto was still blackened with tar and now had pieces of twigs and leaves stuck to his body. Next to him was a vaguely human-shaped thing he surmised must be Kurotsuchi. She was covered head to toe in paints, primarily pinks and lavenders, and for some reason was wearing a tutu. The two of them were laughing between panting breaths as they laid against the same wooden pole in the middle.

Kakashi sighed and took out his porn as he beheld the two. "Hello, Naruto," he said evenly.

Naruto's attention flickered to the scarecrow, signaling cheerfulness to come out from hiding. "Oh, hey Kakashi-sensei. How's the life been? I've gotten…" Naruto paused and grunted as he brought himself back up. "…I've gotten a lot stronger over my training trip. I could take those bells all by myself now if I wanted to."

Kurotsuchi crackled up with renewed laughter. "Wow, you leaf ninja sure have some weird practices."

Naruto turned around to look at her. "What's so weird about snatching bells?"

Kurotsuchi's half-lidden eyes and slightly open mouth were indications of her being drunk off of laughter. She was absolutely giddy with herself. "Oh… thought you said balls."

Naruto cracked up laughing as well, making Kakashi almost sigh. And she wasn't the only one drunk off happy either. "A lot of people are looking for you too…" Kakashi tried to say as menacingly as he could.

The blond teenager in question shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He offered a hand to the prone girl, who accepted it and pulled herself up. "We're going."

Kakashi shook his head and put two hands on either of their shoulders. "Brace yourself," he said.

00000000

The two teenagers stumbled to the floor, sprinkling flecks of paint and smears of tar all over the ground. It was rather cramped, with all the world leaders, the members of the contract, and now Kakashi standing with his hands covered in either black tar or multicolored paint in the middle of it all. The faint booming of Jiraiya's enhanced voice could be heard up on top of the roof. As soon as he could, Kakashi body flickered out of the room.

Tsunade was the first one to move, standing Naruto up by the scruff of his collar and looking him straight in the eye. "Where have you been?" she asked furiously.

Naruto shrugged in a show of mass disrespect. "I got lost on the road of life."

Tsunade growled at him lowly as she stared him in the eyes. He could tell she was deliberating between chewing him out right then and there and waiting for when there was more time.

When she didn't respond right away, Fu stepped forward and asked "What happened to you two?" with a worried quaver in her voice.

Tsunade let go of him and stalked back to her desk while he scratched the back of his head with a toothy grin showing on his face. "It's… uhmm… You'd have to be there to get it."

By now, Kurotsuchi was up-and-at-em too with a comparative smile. "But what really matters is that I won."

Naruto play-scoffed. "You wish, princess."

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back a little bit. "I literally tarred and feathered you. That can't be beaten."

"And I got you to fall into a Punjabi trap filled with princess paint. I think that's a top."

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Enough!" Tsunade barked out. "Transform so you two look like normal people, then get your asses up there right now!"

Naruto's and Kurotsuchi's spine stiffened and they both rose a hand up to their foreheads to salute. "Yessir/Righto!"

Out of earshot, Ai leaned over to Onoki and murmured "Your granddaughter's excitable, isn't she?" There was a mocking grin painted over his face which didn't need to be seen to be known.

"Says the man whose Jinchuuriki had a meltdown this morning," Onoki quipped back.

They both flinched when soft hands with iron grips clasped on their shoulders. Mei leaned forward with a death smile and lowly said "Ara? Do I hear the gossiping of schoolgirls? It must just be me, right? There's no way that two heads of state could be measuring their dicks while in earshot of me, right?"

Onoki raised both hands in the air, not perturbed by the hand digging into his shoulder. "I'm not the one who started it."

Mei let go of their shoulders with a sigh. "If this is going to work, we need to at least _act_ cordial. Try not to keep score over whose girl is best. It's unsightly."

Fu flitted over to them. "What's going on?"

"Nothing is going on," Tsunade said with barely restrained anger. "Except for you six marching your asses up the roof and waving at the crowds while Jiraiya does his routine. Got it?!"

Yugito puffed out of existence as she body flickered up to the roof where Jiraiya was. Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose out of frustration. "As a GROUP!"

Temari was the next one to body flicker alone, causing Tsunade to sit down lest she begin a rampage.

"I'm just gunna go, then, if that's okay…" Fu said quietly before puffing away.

"See ya, boys," Mei said huskily. She was half-way through blowing a kiss when she puffed away too.

Naruto nudged Kurotsuchi in the elbow. "Guess it's just us, then."

She shook her head, saying "Nope, just you," before puffing away as well.

"Gah-" Naruto blurted out. "She didn't wait for me…"

"GO!"

Naruto waved Tsunade off "Yeah, I got it. I got it."

00000000

The six of them stood side by side on top of the kage administration with Jiraiya's towering form directly behind them, going through a long preamble about the horrors of war and what could be done to take steps towards peace. The crowd under them were not just of civilian nature alone, meaning that the streets, the walls, the rooftops, antennas, pillars, and even a large bird were all used as purchases for shinobi to use. There was a sea of people, all with expectant, annoyed, or wary eyes directed towards what was happening. Many had guesses to how the speech was going to turn out, but not a single one was right.

"The Jinchuuriki of the cloud, Yugito Nii! The ones who have not faced off against her know at least her might! She is not only an accomplished Kunoichi of one of the five great villages, but also one of the most powerful people alive, having mastered her beast's power!" Jiraiya shouted out, beginning to name the people on the roof with grandiose.

As he paused, there was a smattering of uneasy murmuring in the crowds of the people. The eyes of the people reflected equal parts awe and fear. Yugito shifted her weight from side to side. She didn't know how uncomfortable it was going to be being stared at by a whole village of people until it was happening. To her, all their eyes were searching her up and down, looking for any weak points that they could try to exploit. Her eyes flickered over to the end of the line, where Naruto was. His stature was straight and tall with a beaming smile on his face. He wasn't only okay with the attention, he basked in it like a cat would in sunlight. She had the feeling that if he was standing next to her, she'd be able to rest easier, prompting a particularly lascivious assault from the demon in her body.

"Daughter of the previous leader of sand and sister to the current leader, Temari no Sabaku! Not only of a noble bloodline and proud posture, this girl, no older than 18, is one of the youngest jonin among the sand population of shinobi to attain that rank and has mastered the usage of wind arts to a degree few ever have!"

Temari was used to such gazes. Not only from the people staring at her on the streets, but because she was sometimes invited to the speeches her father gave, few that he did. She had been shy the first few times, but had grown used to the stares over time. As she looked down and back at the people of the leaf, even recognizing a few of them, a strange flicker of hope began to kindle in her chest. There had already been hiccups aplenty, but if the contract worked as intended, it could mean a demilitarization of the entire continent. It could mean that a profession that included lying, cheating, stealing, and killing would no longer be looked up to as a noble one. And besides, her day-to-day had been, until then, sorely lacking the sort of unrestrained joviality that Naruto often brought along with him. It could be a nice change of pace to travel with such a man.

"Jinchuuriki of the waterfall, Fu! Unknown to many as she had been sequestered in her village as a deterrent and a defensive weapon! Along with Yugito, also one of the most powerful people on the continent with an impressive host of abilities rare for even a demon host!"

Fu smiled brightly and clearly for all the people in front of her. She raised her hands high above her head and waved them back and forth. A small cheer rang out from somewhere in the crowd, followed by another, then another, then another, until there was a small roar of applause and cheer from them. Considering the amount of people there, the noise was lackluster, but it lightened many of their spirits. Her spirit, which only possibly matched their own Jinchuuriki's, was infectious. The girl wasn't sure about the prospect of universal peace. What truly excited her was the idea of travelling across the continent with people who could have understood her plight even marginally. Even if most of them were downers, it was going to be fun being with them. Especially Naruto and now maybe Kurotsuchi. They looked like they knew how to create their own fun. Exactly her kind of people.

"Leader of the rebellion against the Bloody Mist, Mei Terumi! Having mastered two different types of bloodline releases, she has led a new future to her village! Already, her populace has praised her for the practices she has put in place! Another one of the most powerful people on the continent and a born leader!"

Mei smiled serenely as she waved to the crowd sedately. She'd been through the rigmarole of addressing populaces and had every part of her body perfectly practiced towards lifting the people's spirits. A whistle rang out from the audience, making her smile draw upwards ever so slightly. Soon, there was more whistling, though this was quieted much more harshly by the attending partners of the whistlers than Fu's exuberant waving.

"Granddaughter of the current Tsuchikage of rock, Kurotsuchi! With a bloodline limit of her own that she has mastered, she has won the hearts of the people of rock!"

Noticing that that was all the introduction she was going to get, Kurotsuchi turned back at the man and gave him a death glare, not that it made him falter all too much. She turned around suddenly, stomped up to the railing, put a foot on the top and struck a single fist in the air. "Let's hear some noise!" she shouted out at the top of her lungs.

At first, there was only stifled laughter in the audience, but there was soon a raving cheer going across the sea of people. People began to compete with how loud their voices could be and even stark haters of hidden rock felt a light grin tug their lips. She crossed her arms and stomped her way back in line, leaving a line of colorful paint on the ground unseen by the people. As soon as she was back next to Naruto, she nudged him in the shoulder. "Beat that," she said in challenge.

He grinned. "Oh, I will."

"Naruto Uzumaki! Many of you all know him as a prankster, a hell raiser, a loudmouth, or a little brat…"

Naruto turned back and gave the old man the stink eye. Jiraiya had to pause as a slight chuckle overcame his seriousness for a second. As soon as that happened, there was a smattering of laughter among the audience too.

Jiraiya straightened himself out and put his serious mask back on. "And yet… many of the people here today have heard of him. You have seen him during the chunin exams several years ago. You've heard tales of his exploits, of his relationships, of his very goals, with doubt and disbelief. But any of you that have met him know about him. You know that he will be the last one to give in. He will won't ever give up, because that's his shinobi way. That's the way he lives his life. He's grown now and has been trained by myself all the way. The reason for this training is… to help him contain the nine tailed demon fox sealed in his gut."

And just like that, there was silence in the audience. From disbelief and confusion from the younger generation and shock from the older.

Thanks to the silence, Jiraiya's voice was all the more louder. "Many of you already know this, but the younger generation does not. Naruto Uzumaki had the Kyuubi sealed in his gut by the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze with the help of his wife, Kushina Uzumaki. That is the way that he defeated the Kyuubi, as a tailed beast can never be truly defeated through conventional means."

Kurotsuchi felt her stomach tighten up. All of the sudden, there was a constellation of dots in her mind, trying to make connections as fast as she could and not liking the result that they were coming out to.

"And if any of you are wondering what happened to the fourth Hokage's secret wife, Kushina Uzumaki… Well… she died protecting her newborn son."

Everyone's eyes grew in the audience at the reveal of this new information. A few had already figured out what Jiraiya was going to say next, but most were just too shocked by the information to do anything, Kurotsuchi included.

"But worry not, for her son has survived all this time. And his name, is Naruto Uzumaki…"

Kurotsuchi's stomach twisted itself in knots. She couldn't move anymore. She couldn't think anymore. She couldn't even hear the cheer raised throughout the crowd as Naruto incited more excitement than she ever could. She didn't see the triumphant smile on his face and she didn't feel the nudge against her shoulder from him.

There was no jutsu entrapping her thoughts and movements. The chains that bound her were securely made from forged and hardened rage, long thought to have been bottled back in the recesses of her mind, only to find it brought back with enough force to temporarily paralyze her body.

Jiraiya began to lay out to the plan of the countries, but she didn't hear them. Eventually, the leaders of the respective villages popped up there behind them, but she didn't feel them. Naruto leaned to the side and asked if she was okay, but she didn't even notice him. She couldn't. How could she? How would she?

Because she was standing next to the son of the man who killed her mother.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

She snapped back to reality when she felt the cold, withered hand of her grandfather grab her elbow suddenly. Her breath got caught in her throat and her spine snapped straight. "Don't make a scene," he hissed so lowly that it was only audible to her.

The sound of her teeth grinding together assaulted her inner ears. She couldn't unclench her teeth no matter how hard she tried. Her face was screwed up in anger, though she doubted anyone noticed. All the people in the crowds were looking at each other or milling about with any number of differing emotions on their face.

She only had one emotion available to her. "But gramps-"

"If you make a single sound more, I will make you so heavy that you won't be able to stand for weeks."

Kurotsuchi bit back her tongue and closed her eyes. She felt a hot wetness on her cheeks. Was she crying? Too many emotions that she had thought were long gone began to bubble up in her chest. Sadness, anger, frustration, fear, doubt, and above all, helplessness. As she glared at the teenager next to her, him waving out to the crowd and blowing raspberries in an utterly humiliating display of juvenility and childishness, Kurotsuchi felt the most intense sensation of helplessness well up inside of her.

No, that's not right. She wasn't helpless anymore. She was a fucking adult now. She could do whatever she damn well pleased.

And it would damn well please her to shove a katana down his throat and look him in the eyes as he choked on his own blood.

Oh, it would please her greatly.

00000000

Mei, being the one standing on the other side of Kurotsuchi, was the first one to sense the incredibly fluctuating chakra signature to her side. Mei glanced over and saw streams of tears pouring out of the girl's eyes like miniature waterfalls and a face that was more tortured than many of the people she'd seen dying on the battlefield. Something was very wrong.

As soon as she noticed this, she walked up behind Jiraiya and quietly said, "We have a problem," interrupting his speech mid-sentence.

Without changing his facial expression in the slightest, Jiraiya nodded ever so slightly and immediately pivoted away from the point he was making with promises of more minute details trickled down by the elite shinobi. By the time they had turned around, there were only four members of the contract standing in a line.

Kurotsuchi was gone, having brushed past her grandfather, leaving him flat on his ass on the ground next to a confused Naruto.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking over to where he had last seen Kurotsuchi's fleeing form.

Jiraiya took charge of the group, saying "Everyone, body flicker down to the room right now," in a stern and domineering voice.

The leaders and their charges paired up without a second buffer and vanished from the rooftop, leaving a citizenry confused as to what happened. Soon, they would begin to filter back to their homes with confusion, doubt, and trepidation in their hearts. Never before had something like this happened. Nevermind a 6-way marriage, few remembered a time when five kage were in the same general vicinity and there wasn't a war going on. The general populace would debate, argue, and whisper in hushed tones as to how they thought it was going to shake out. There would be a hundred different conspiracy theories by the time the sun set and a hundred more by the time the sun rose. Some could agree, some were indifferent, and others still couldn't accept allying with any of the other big five. The next week or so were of vital importance to the people's perception of how things might shake out.

00000000

Naruto almost stumbled forward, but he was held steady by the grip of Tsunade. As soon as Onoki was down, she said "What's going on?" with a hint of frustration in her voice. Things had been going so well. What could have happened to exacerbate the ire of the girl from rock? Honestly, it was that girl that made her the most worried for the future of the alliance. The rest were either staunchly pragmatic or indifferent to the contract, but Kurotsuchi was excitable and acted on emotion in a way not wholly unreminiscent of the teenager whose shoulder she was grabbing. So when Kakashi brought the two of them in front of her, covered in tar and paint, but laughing their asses off, she couldn't help but feel a load lift off her shoulders a little bit. If they could work things out, then maybe peace could be achieved.

Now, the weight came crashing back down, heavier than ever.

Onoki brushed himself off grumpily and stood as straight as his age would permit with his arms crossed over his chest. "Oh, don't tell me your 'spymaster' didn't tell you about this. Anyone who's anyone knows that there's been an impromptu kage meeting since a few weeks ago. If your spymaster doesn't know what's going on, then he isn't worth his salt."

Tsunade desperately wanted to admonish him for shifting the topic of conversation, but she knew that there wasn't time for that. Instead, she turned to look at Jiraiya and lifted an eyebrow.

He splayed his hands to the side and shrugged. "Of course I knew that there was a meeting in leaf, but I had no idea what it was about. I only just managed to pull up dossiers on the five women and I only had about half a day to do it."

"And?" Mei asked.

"And what?"

Mei sighed. "Since his lordliness," she pointed at the grumpy Onoki, who was turning his head away from all of them. "Isn't talking. What do you know about her? She was fine when she got up there and suddenly, her chakra went wild."

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, interjecting himself in the conversation. "Why did that happen?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out, kid," Ai muttered.

"Well it has to be something you said, Jiraiya," Shibuki said. "There's nothing else that could have happened to have upset her so."

Everyone turned to look at the slight man, making him almost flinch. He wasn't used to speaking out too often and everyone in the room had a sort of 'unassailable' vibe going around them.

"Well Jiraiya," Tsunade said, turning to him. "What did you say?"

His face had been screwed up in concentration for a little bit when she looked at him. "I don't know. Her introduction wasn't as long, but I couldn't find anything as noteworthy as the others."

"And she wouldn't go bipolar over a shortened introduction," Temari quipped.

"Perhaps it was something to do with Naruto's introduction?" Gaara put forward. "If it was happening around that time, then it might not have had to do specifically with her."

Jiraiya looked like a man scrambling for his own sanity. "But I didn't do anything then either! I introduced him to the populace, made them feel for him, then I told… them…" Jiraiya began to trail off as he began to make connections between what he thought were once disparate facts. He turned to Onoki, who was still shoving his nose the other way. The old man's refusal to speak wasn't just due to his stubbornness. He was… ashamed?

"Onoki…" Jiraiya said lowly. "You didn't…"

"I didn't have any other choice, child!" Onoki shouted. "There was no one else eligible other than her and I made sure that my son wouldn't tell her the truth!"

"Well it looks like that went by swimmingly!" Jiraiya shouted back. "How could you think this was a good idea?"

"I didn't have any other choice, child!" Onoki reiterated. "You think I wanted to do it this way? Anybody else would have flat out refused me or tried to kill him! At least this way, I had some control over her."

"Except it looks like you don't, old man."

"The contract was originally made 16 years ago, child!"

"HEY!"

The room went quiet at the sudden outburst from Yugito. Her mouth was curled in a snarl and her eyes looked murderous. "I, for one, am quite annoyed at being left out of the loop. Would you kindly explain to me just what's going on?"

Onoki crossed his arms and turned away from them while Jiraiya pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kurotsuchi's mother," Jiraiya breathed out. "Died in one of the battles Naruto's father was present."

"She didn't just die while he was there," Onoki spat out. "She was killed by his hand."

The room went quiet as the inhabitants digested the meaning of what was said. Naruto was struck so hard by it that his knees feel out from under him, forcing him to sit down in a chair. Fu's eyebrows scrunched together. "That's…"

"Fucked," Temari finished. "Like, really fucked."

Mei crossed her arms and huffed. "Oh, please. This continent has been ravaged by war for so long that everyone has buried their friends or loved ones. Honestly, she's being quite petty."

"Have you ever lost anyone?" Yugito asked.

Mei's eyes narrowed as she looked at the militaristic woman. "Is that supposed to be a joke? I grew up on a battlefield. Of course I've lost loved ones."

"And I bet no one asked you to marry the son of the ones who killed your friends."

Mei waved it off. "The sins of the father should not carry on to the son. It shouldn't matter what his father did to her mother. Especially not when the balance of the world hangs precariously over the tides of war."

"Even so," Yugito offered. "Would you be able to marry the son of a man who killed a person you loved?"

Mei tapped a finger against her elbow rhythmically. "If I had to…" She gritted out.

Yugito closed her eyes and sighed. "Well it doesn't sound like Kurotsuchi lived on a battlefield. Any of the fighting she did, I doubt it was to destabilize the balance of the big five. At this point, she's actually rather naïve to how the world works. Can you blame her for running?"

"Yes, I can, and I will. Even one naïve as her has to know how important this is." Mei took a moment to take a deep breath and collect herself. "I doubt we were the only ones who saw her outburst. Why are we even debating over this? We should be trying to find her."

Naruto stood up suddenly, a resolute look shining on his face. "You're right. We should go."

"Split up?" Fu asked. "Or maybe a… tracker?" She trailed off as she saw the fleeing tail end of Naruto burst out of the door and down the hallway of the building, an idea of where to find her already in mind.

"No! Ahh… shit. He's gone." Tsunade turned to Jiraiya. "Do you have any tracking toads?"

He nodded, already biting his thumb. "Yup," he said, before slamming a palm on the table, releasing a puff of smoke and revealing a small toad smoking a pipe far too large for it.

"Ah, boya. Watcha callin me out here for?"

"Do you smell the paint?" he asked.

The toad grew indignant. "Waddyou take me for? Of course I can."

"Well," Jiraiya said, showing the way. "If you'd lead?"

The toad sighed and got up. One could practically hear the creaking of his joints. "Okay, okay, off we go," he said before jumping off and landing on the ground. A few seconds went by before he jumped again, making it to the door. He turned around, eyeing everybody. "Waddya waiting for?"

Tsunade leaned over to Jiraiya. "Should we just call Kakashi?"

"I heard that!" The toad shouted. "Ain't nothing a dog can do that a toad can't! Now get your asses in gear. We're going turbo drive," the toad said before jumping out the door and into the hallway. This time, only a second passed before he jumped again. By shinobi standards, he was moving a snail's pace.

Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, on one side, I'm pressured by shady, backdoor dealings of dubious moral nature, and on the other, it's incompetence on the greatest level."

Jiraiya sighed into the palm of his hand. "I know, I know. I'll call a faster one next time."

"I heard that!"

00000000

Naruto burst out of the tree line and into the grassy meadow breathing hard and his mind in turmoil. The sun hit him like a brick to the face and he had to shade his eyes quickly. He'd been running through the trees for a good five or so minutes before he came to where he wanted to be. To his right was the rest of the meadow and a large tree overhanging a medium sized pond, and to his left were three wooden poles firmly stuck in the ground. On top of the middle one was a hunched over individual hugging her knees to her chest. On the pole next to her was a katana stuck sliced into the base of the wood.

He opened his mouth to shout out to her, but as he took a step forward, his foot squelched on the ground. It hadn't rained for days. There shouldn't be mud. When he looked down and lifted up his foot, there was purplish pink paint stuck to the bottom of the soles. His visage went grim and a frown marred his face. Looking at the paint made his stomach queasy because just minutes prior, he had associated that paint with the laughing grin of Kurotsuchi.

She was a strange, brusque, rude, and abrasive person. But the more he talked to her, the more he found her personality to be infectious. There weren't many people he could let loose around. In fact, other than maybe Shikamaru, he always found himself holding back a part of himself when interacting with people. He had just met her and they grated on each other's nerves, but he couldn't find it in himself to dislike her. They were alike in too many ways.

And now, with the paint staining his foot, he realized he didn't know what he was going to say. What could he say? How could he say it? How could he say sorry to the fact that his father killed her mother? He didn't want to hurt her. He wanted to talk with her more. He wanted to… He wanted the marriage thing to go well. He wanted them to be friends.

Instead of shouting out her name and running towards her like his body had been telling his mind to do, he instead walked toward her in a more sedate pace. He didn't sneak up on her or try to mask his presence. He just needed time to figure out what to say.

He couldn't find them. Not the words, nor the way. So when he stood behind her, mouth agape and throat struggling to find words, he felt like an idiot. He always knew he wasn't the smartest of the bunch, but it was only then, standing behind someone who was hurting because of him, unable to apologize or even to say anything that he felt well and truly like an imbecile. Like a dobe. Maybe Sasuke was right all along. How could he bring back the Uchiha if he couldn't even find the right words?

Naruto took a deep breath and hopped up on the other stump next to her. He was on her right and on her left was where the katana was stuck. He looked up to the sky with the birds chirping and the leaves rustling in the breeze. He could feel the wind on his arms because he had shucked away his tar logged coat a while ago. It still covered his legs and other bits not covered by the coat, but at least it was possible to move that way. Since her clothes weren't stained anymore, but paint was still stuck to her skin, he could only guess that she ran to the house for a change of clothes.

Why wasn't it raining? Why wasn't the sky crying? Why did the birds chase each other around without a care in the world? Couldn't anyone but him see the pain the girl was in?

No, he was the only one. The only thing that could comfort her in that moment and what was he doing? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.

"The… the weather's… nice," Naruto said lamely. He didn't know what else to say. There was nothing else to say. Everything from the quiver in his voice to the words he chose told her everything she needed to hear for her to understand.

And even so, she said nothing. Her eyes were dead and they didn't see the world. There were unwiped tear tracks on her cheeks. He took a deep breath and said "I'm-"

The sound of a blade being pulled from a stump and the air being cut. He blinked and there was a sword digging into the skin of his throat. "Don't say it," she said. "If you say 'I'm sorry', I think I just might have to cut your head off."

Naruto put a finger on the dull part of the blade and pushed it away from his throat. He started to scramble for words. What could he say? What?! "I… I didn't have many friends growing up. Can you believe that?"

It was like the strength to hold the sword vanished from her arm. It fell to the ground where it sunk a few inches in.

Naruto nodded. "It was… I don't know, maybe you didn't have friends either so you can relate or something, but it was hard, for me. I didn't know why the parents didn't let their kids talk to me. So it was… hard. It was, you know, it was because of the demon sealed in my gut, but I didn't know that back then. I thought it was… just because of me. I didn't have parents to tell me I was special or really anyone to comfort me, so… I wanted attention."

He looked to the side to see if she was still paying attention. Her eyes were open, but he wasn't sure if she was listening. Even so, he continued on. "I used to do so many stupid fucking things to get attention because when people were looking at me, they were acknowledging me. It was like, I was invisible unless I pressed their hand. Being looked at, even if it was with annoyance or malice, it made me feel like I existed. And then, when I was older, like… only about three years ago almost… I met someone who looked at me. The real me, not the one that everyone else saw. I think I only really realized it when he- when he put himself between me and a giant shuriken before telling me to run away. I realized that… I could exist. And, I started to make more friends who looked at the real me until… until it didn't feel so bad sleeping in an empty house anymore. It would always hurt though. And that's why… you know, now that I think about it, this whole… thing. It might not be so bad anymore. I can… I can have a family. In a real fucked up way, but still. I can wake up and talk to someone about nothing. I can go to bed knowing I'm not alone. I can…" Naruto sighed, hanging his head down. "I don't know where I'm going with this anymore. But… I don't want to hurt you."

Kurotsuchi's face contorted on itself. Her face went red and a new wave of tears welled up behind her eyes. She reached down, grabbed the sword, and swung upwards, stopping at his throat again. Her arm was shaking, leaving a few angry red lines on his throat and beginning to stain the edge of her sword red. "I… I… I want to hate you so bad right now. I want to be able to watch you bleed out on the grass and spit on your bleeding, fucking corpse. You weren't the only one who had it hard. My dad had to raise me by himself because of your dad. When he was away on missions, I had to be taken care of by the neighbors and they treated me like glass, like a precious doll. Do you have any idea how many times I wanted to scream and bite and tantrum every time they snuck off to a corner where they thought I couldn't hear them and whisper 'Oh, poor girl', 'mom got stuck by the fourth hokage', 'such a terrible thing, and to the granddaughter of the kage too'. It was-" The tears fell out of her eyes like a river and a sob choked her throat. "Everyone… they sucked up to me. Their smiles were fake. Their tears were fake. Their words were fake. Everything about everyone and everywhere was fucking FAKE! And when I was in an empty house, crying myself to sleep, the only thing I could think of was a mother I don't even remember the face of. And I remember hate."

Her arm fell down again and her face slackened, though it wasn't due to an emotional mask she put on. Just the process of showing emotions was too taxing on her. It took too much energy. "Everyone hated the fourth hokage, but I hated him the most. It didn't matter if he was dead because I would always hate him for taking something away from me that I never even got to understand. You think you were alone? Well so was I."

Naruto's nose flared up. "What the fuck are you talking about? You have a dad! You have someone who loves you unconditionally and would never let you go! You have someone who would cry if you died! You're not alone! I didn't have any of that!" he screamed.

Kurotsuchi's nose flared up too. "You can't understand the pain I've been through! Everyone always trying to take advantage of me! Everyone never meaning what they say! I was worse than nothing! I was sub-human. I was a stepping stone! A way to better peoples' careers!"

"And you also had people who loved you! I didn't!"

"And it wasn't my mom's fault for that! My mom didn't take anything away from you! My mom didn't put a fucking demon in your gut! My mom didn't do a single goddamn, motherfucking thing wrong! SO WHY DID YOUR DAD KILL HER?"

"i don't know. i never knew him. he was just the guy who put a fucking conglomeration of evil and hatred in my navel and peaced out! you think i love my dad? i didn't even know who he was two days ago! I DON'T KNOW WHY HE KILLED YOUR MOM, BUT HEY, GUESS WHAT? SHE'S NOT COMING BACK!"

Kurotsuchi looked like she had been struck in the chest by a club. The shock on her face was soon replaced with a snarl. "The fuck did you just say?"

Naruto slouched, all anger evaporating from him like a pan of water left out on a hot day. "Nobody's coming back. I can't change that. You can't change that. Nobody can change that. I can't apologize for something that my dad did, but I can say one thing," he looked her straight in the eye, expressing all the sadness, anger, and fear in those eyes of his with one look. "I like you. And I don't want you to be hurt."

Her breathing became staggered. Anger was choking her throat. She screamed like and animal and pounced on him, pushing him off the log and onto the grassy floor. She put her knees on his shoulders and punched him in the face. The first one hit him like a rock. Kurotsuchi's eyes widened at the realization of what she'd done before anger took hold once more. Her fists fell on his face like hammers. His features were soon slick with blood and puffed up from the bruising. That didn't matter to her. The blows kept raining over and over and over. Even when there was no strength in her arms and her knuckles were ripped up and she was sobbing uncontrollably did they stop making any damage.

She had to palm the grass with both hands to keep her torso up, so she couldn't do anything to stop Naruto from spitting out a wad of blood and turning his face to her. His eyes were swollen shut, so he couldn't see anything, but she got the feeling that he knew where her eyes were. "Do you feel better?" he asked scathingly.

She took a few shaky breaths. "No... I don't." Her voice was measured and even. Sense was returning to her.

"Get off me." It wasn't a question or him asking her to. There was no please or thank you. He was not gentle in saying it and he was not kind.

Kurotsuchi nodded and backed up until her back was pressed against the log with her ass on the ground. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on top. Naruto sat up too, opposite her. "So?" he asked.

Kurotsuchi didn't look up. "So what?"

He sighed and laid back down. His face hurt just from talking. That girl packed a punch. "So are you still in this thing?"

She was done. Exhausted in every way that could be defined. "Yeah… sure."

Naruto got up to his feet and slowly walked towards her before extending a hand. "Can you get up on your own, or do you need help?"

Kurotsuchi raised her head from her knees and stared at the hand. It was rough and calloused. A hand that only knew hard work and determination. It was attached to the son of the man who killed her mother. It was attached to someone she had just brutalized the face of. It was attached to someone who didn't see her as the sum of her title.

She took the hand and it pulled her up. She could have stood up on her own if she wanted to though.

At their full height, he was about a head taller than her. Blood was dripping out of his face and was starting to stain his undershirt. She couldn't tell what he was thinking because of how bad his face was messed up. What could she say? What should she say? "I'm-"

"Ah!" Naruto grunted out, holding a finger up. "If you say 'I'm sorry', I might just have to cut your head off."

Her mouth pressed into a line and she hung her head down in shame. Funny, she thought she didn't have any tears left. Her body proved her wrong when a new stream flowed from her eyes. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm sorry." She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his sternum. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Naruto wrapped an arm around her back and held the muttering girl. "It's okay, I know you are."

Kurotsuchi cried into his chest softly. Gone were the choking sobs. In their place was a quiet somberness. She wouldn't be able to tell because of the blood on his face, but Naruto was crying too. "It's okay," he mumbled. "It's okay."

00000000

Yugito looked at Kurotsuchi's room with an even expression. Almost everything in the room sans the bed had been torn up, splattered with paint, and thrown about haphazardly. She'd already seen it a few times and had even thought of tidying it up a little bit, but she always held off on doing so. It wasn't like she owed the girl anything. She got on her nerves, in fact. The room stank of acrylic, so she took a deep breath in the hallway before stepping in. She got to the closet and opened the door, revealing orange tracksuits that had been torn to shreds and brutalized. Right under them were a pair of clothes completely covered in paint. Yugito could only assume those were the ones that Kurotsuchi had body flickered into administration wearing.

The tall woman turned around and looked at the rest of the room. God, that girl had a temper. That was dangerous. How was such an excitable girl still be alive in her profession? Finding out you were marrying the son of the man who killed your mother or not, some displays of emotion were far too much. Yugito shook her head, allowing the air trapped in her lungs to escape through her nose. She really hoped there were a pair of pajamas laying around somewhere for Naruto to use. She wasn't much for the idea of sleeping with him in the buff.

' **Oh my, young kitten. For you to toy with the notion-'**

Yugito took a page out of Tsunade's handbook and pinched her nose to stem the oncoming headache that came with dealing with her demon. 'Could you please not do this right now?'

She could hear an exaggerated sigh come from her mind. **'Oh, if you insist. I still don't see why you won't see him as a potential bedmate.'**

'I don't know,' Yugito bit back sarcastically. 'Maybe it's because I've known him for less than two days, tried to kill him in that time, almost succeeded in killing him, practically carried him back here when he covered for me, and maybe also the fact that he's a decade my junior. That about sum it up?'

Matatabi clicked her tongue. **'All I hear are excuses. He's a ravaging young man. You have to sink your claws in him before someone else does.'**

Yugito closed the door behind her with an air of finality. 'I'm fine on my own, thank you very much.'

' **Oh, honey. I think we both know that isn't true.'**

The woman walked downstairs just in time to see Fu fly into the house through the door excitedly. The girl briefly relayed to the large party taking up the living room that she had seen the two people being hunted in question sitting down and talking in a training field. A collective sigh of relief swept through the house and Fu flitted off to relay the information to the few individuals still actively searching for the two. Yugito shook her head and sat down at the kitchen table, passively looking at the various heads of state and harem members try to begin conversation.

It was awkward and weird. She didn't want any part of it.

" **Yugito, can I talk to you?"**

Yugito scrunched her eyebrows together. Matatabi never referred to her as anything other than 'kitten'. Well, she didn't anymore. Back when they were still hostile, Matatabi often used more choice words, but those days were long past. Yugito nodded and crossed her legs over themselves, working herself into a meditative pose.

As soon as she closed and opened her eyes, she was in front of the giant two tailed demon death cat, Matatabi. The bars holding her back were gone, though the process through which they went away wasn't exactly the norm. Then again, there wasn't really any set 'norm' to speak of. There was the ideal way, which is how Bee managed, and there was the way one does when one fails the ideal way, which is how Yugito manages.

Matatabi got up on all fours and began pacing around. **"You know I worry about you kitten."**

Yugito sighed and nodded along with the cat's speaking. "Yes, I know."

" **And you know how I'm worried about how you don't have any friends."**

Yugito shifted her weight to her back foot, crossed her arms over her chest, and quirked a brow. "I have friends."

" **Bee's students don't count."**

"What about Daru-"

" **Ai's personal bodyguards don't count either."**

"Well what abou-"

" **Teammates you occasionally go on missions with don't count either."**

Yugito bit the inside of her cheek. The past few years, things had been getting better for her. The villagers had stopped treating her with downright animosity about ten years ago, when she was around 20 or so and she had worked hard enough and often enough that their indifference began to slowly switch over to respect and or admiration. That being said, she never developed a personality that one might consider 'sociable' throughout all those years. She was almost the complete opposite of the other Jinchuuriki of her village, who treated everything with a perceived flippancy and became friends with everyone.

The Jinchuuriki sighed. "Why did you call me here?" she asked, cutting straight to the chase.

" **I think you know why I called you here."**

"If you're just going to parrot back to me what you've already said, I might as well go back and get myself something to eat. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Matatabi walked around her to block off the exit and sat down, shaking the ground qne unbalancing Yugito a little bit. **"I was having fun. Perhaps that's my fault, but I truly am serious. You have a good chance here. Try to connect, why don't you? Why not learn a little bit about the guy you're sleeping with? Can't hurt."**

Yugito sighed as she bent her knees and rocketed into the air, vaulting straight over Matatabi's monolithic body and landing in between the giant cat's tails. "Even when you're being serious, you can't be serious," she said, already beginning to stalk off into the hallway.

" **Yugito…"** Matatabi called back with a slight air of agitation.

The woman stopped midstride. "I'll talk to him," she said without looking back. "But I'm not making any promis-

00000000

-es." Yugito snapped open her eyes and planted her feet on the ground. Her entire body tensed up and searched the surrounding for what was wrong. Fu, who had tapped her on the forehead, backed off suddenly with both palms facing forward.

"Woah, sorry about that," Fu said with wide open eyes.

Yugito let her body relax and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "What time is it?" she asked.

"I think it's about 8ish. Naruto and Kurotsuchi are almost back. You were like that for a while so I was checking if you were okay and…"

Yugito waved her off with one hand and rubbed her eyes with the other. Talking while in the mindscape was always a crapshoot for her. Hours could be seconds and seconds could be hours. For all her experience with it, she could never anticipate how time would progress outside of the mindscape. Looked like this time, it was around six or seven hours. "It's fine. Dinner?"

Fu pointed to the kitchen counter, which had more than a few microwavables stacked on top of each other. Evidently, there had been a 'feast' while she was talking to Matatabi if the amount of boxes were of any indication. "Everybody gone?" she asked.

"Mei and Temari are getting some sleep. I think Naruto and Kurotsuchi should be here soon. The rest of the kage are gone."

Yugito got up and started scrounging around in the kitchen for a few leftover bites. Her body still ached from the morning and there was nothing more she wanted to do than to fall into bed and call it an early day.

"So, uhh…" Fu started off unsurely, jumping up slightly to sit on the edge of the counter. "Why are you awake anyway?"

"Huh?" Yugito asked through a mouthful of still warm macaroni.

"I mean, you had a, uhh… let's call it a big morning. You've been groggy all day. Why're you still awake?"

Yugito shrugged. "I'm not falling asleep before Naruto."

Fu tilted her head. "Why?"

"We _are_ sleeping together. I need to set some ground rules."

Fu's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Excuse me?"

Yugito rolled her eyes. "We're sleeping in the same bed. All the other rooms are taken and mine has a queen bed, so he's sleeping with me. 'Sides, he's already slept there this morning."

Fu whistled to the side. "You sure about that?" she asked, wincing a little bit.

Yugito let her tired eyes trace back to the lithe girl. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well… I mean, he and Kurotsuchi seemed pretty close on the way back. I was thinking that they'd be in the same bed. It is bigger after all."

Yugito didn't quite know how to react to that information. She didn't have too much time to ponder what it meant, as the two subjects of conversation opened the door and walked inside slowly, both wrapped in a thick layer of tension and high octane emotions.

"Hey guys," Fu said as loudly as she dared with sleeping ninjas above her. "Get everything worked out?"

Kurotsuchi looked down and to the side and Naruto gripped the back of his neck. "Uhm… yeah, I guess."

A pregnant silence filled the room. Everyone expected everyone else to fill the silence with their own thoughts. "So uhm…" Fu started off unsurely. "How is the bed situation going to work?"

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened and a red blush stained her face. "The room," she gasped out.

Fu was quick to respond with "Oh but don't worry, Temari cleaned up the room. Or, well, as best she could. There's no salvaging the clothes, though. Sorry."

"Wait, what happened?" Naruto asked.

"I…" Kurotsuchi started. "I… through a… tantrum… when I changed my clothes."

Yugito smirked, remembering the scene she had walked into. "Yeah, unless you have a sealing scroll full of clothes up your ass somewhere, you're going to need to go shopping tomorrow."

Naruto sighed and looked at his present state of dress. "And I'm also going to need help with the tar."

Kurotsuchi was quick to shake her head. "It's not real tar. It should rinse off with water."

Naruto sighed in relief. "That's good. I thought I was going to be up for hours wiping this shit off me," he said, ending in a grin with a few huffs of laughter.

Kurotsuchi let a small smile show through, which she was quick to stamp down. "I'm… it's been a long day," she said. "I'm going to bed."

Before she could take two steps, Naruto stepped forward and grabbed her shoulder. "Ah wait," he said quickly. She turned around to look him in the eyes, to which he blushed a little bit. "Do you… uhm… Would you want… me to… come with you? To bed?"

Yugito and Fu shared a look while Kurotsuchi shook her head. "No," she said. "I… need time to be alone."

Fu hopped off the ledge of the counter and bounced her way to Naruto as they both watched Kurotsuchi dart upstairs together. She made a long whistling sound. "So… uh… are you two, like, together now?"

Naruto's unfocused face scrunched up in confusion. "Huh?" he asked, looking down on Fu.

Fu backpedaled on that question wildly. "No, it's just that uhh… you know, you two were gone for a while. Like, a really long time. And you just asked if it good to sleep with her…"

Naruto's face stayed scrunched in confusion for a few more seconds before a bright red blush took over his face. "N-No, I didn't mean it like that."

As the young teen started to babble on about the confusion that just happened, Yugito finished whatever she was eating and walked up to the two of them. "Okay, that's enough," she said. "Get showered and go to bed. There's a long day tomorrow."

Naruto's shoulders sagged downwards. "What is it now?"

"We're starting our trek towards sand. It should take a few days, but it doesn't hurt to start things off with a good night's sleep."

Naruto pulled at his clothes. They were covered in blood, sweat, and black tar. He really wished there was another guy in the house he could borrow the clothes of right then and there.

Yugito clapped him on the back. "You can borrow some of my clothes," she said, guessing his thoughts. "They double as pajamas anyways, so it's not like it matters."

His blush renewed. Before he could protest, Yugito pushed him towards the stairs and followed after him, saying "It's not like we have much of any other option. You're not sleeping in the buff. Not when I'm in the bed too."

"Wait, which bed am I sleeping in?" Naruto asked. Honestly, things were just so confusing to him in those moments.

"Mine," Yugito said simply, starting to step up the stairs.

"I can take the couch."

"You're not taking the couch when you can sleep in a bed. I still owe you and I'm not letting it go."

"Owe me for what?"

"For almost killing you this morning."

Naruto opened his mouth to argue back, but his words got caught in his throat. "It's been a long day, hasn't it?" he finally settled on.

She clicked her tongue in agreement.

00000000

" **You couldn't have worn something sexier?"**

Yugito sighed and leaned her head back against the headboard. In her hands were a pair of knitting needles clacking away at a blue scarf she'd been working on for a few months now. It wasn't a particularly difficult pattern; it was just that she was normally too busy to work on it with any regularity. Despite the fact that if anybody saw her working with yarn they'd come to the immediate conclusion that it had to do with her more 'cat-like' tendencies, Yugito was ultimately glad she had the distraction available to her. Sometimes it was better knowing you had a hobby than it was actually practicing the hobby.

'Is there a mute button on you?' Yugito quipped back. She was wearing the underparts of the second pair of clothes she brought. They were practically a pair of pajamas, with the slight deviation of being resistant towards stabbing.

" **I'm sure that other woman has some on her. What was her name again? Mei? I think that was it. Anyways, she looks like the type to shlep around lingerie no matter where she goes. You know, just in case."**

Yugito busied herself with untangling a knot from the yarn she was working with. 'And just how do you expect that conversation would go? 'Oh, hey, I know we don't know each other and we're from previously 'at war' nations, but I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow your underwear. Why do I need it? Well, I plan to seduce a person half my age. Yes, it's the one you're thinking of. Oh yes, and the more skin showing the better.'

Matatabi chortled out a few strangled huffs of laughter. **"And here I was thinking you didn't have a sense of humor."**

'Just a strong sense of sarcasm.'

" **Witty too."**

'You flatter me.'

Matatabi settled down and laid her head on her paws. **"Baby steps, I suppose. Still though, it's rather brazen of you to offer him your unwashed clothes as a replacement of his own."**

Yugito laughed a little, getting back to a row of stitches on the scarf. "Yeah, right," she muttered.

Matatabi cracked open a single, interested eye. **"You respond as if you think I was joking."**

'You were, though.'

" **I wasn't."**

Yugito looked up from the stitches into nothingness. 'Wait… I washed those clothes.'

" **You** _ **planned**_ **to wash those clothes."**

Yugito's eyes went wide as saucers. 'I… oh, shit.'

Before she could jump up and switch out the clothes she left behind for Naruto wear, the door opened slightly before stopping barely an inch ajar. "Oh, uhh… sorry, are you decent?" Naruto asked.

Yugito gulped down the spit in her mouth. "E-Err… yeah."

As the door opened more fully. Naruto walked in, pulling at the hem of his shirt and looking generally uncomfortable. Although she was a little bit taller than him, his physique was wider by a significant proportion. The clothing stretched around his torso so much that it was practically a second skin, showing off the burgeoning muscle definition he had been maintaining.

Despite her dry mouth, Yugito felt the need to gulp again. "S-So, uhm… ground rules, then." Why was she stammering? He wasn't the first cut male she had seen in her life. But seeing him straining against her clothes with a slightly demure attitude and a downturned gaze made her throat stumble over itself.

Naruto nodded, grabbing one of his elbows with one hand and pulling the hem down as far as it could go with the other. Yugito gulped again. "Erm, no spooning, no cuddling, we share the blanket, and look the other way."

Naruto nodded silently again and approached the bed slowly. Yugito got herself comfortable and turned away from him, closing her eyes already. He turned off the lamp light and got under the blanket next to her.

She stilled her breathing and tried to will herself to sleep. Her body was tired and so was her mind. By all means, she should have been out like a light by the time her head hit the pillow. That didn't happen though. She stayed awake through the seconds which turned to minutes which turned to tens of minutes. The fact of the matter was that she couldn't fall asleep, no matter what she tried. She was too nervous.

Her!

"Hey, uhm… Yugito… are you awake?" Naruto whispered under his breath.

At least she wasn't the only one not getting any sleep. "Yeah," she said with her full voice. "Having trouble falling asleep?"

She could hear the crinkling of the sheets as he nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I think I'm thinking too much. I'm tired, but my brain won't turn off."

Yugito took a deep breath and sat back up in bed, reaching over to turn on a lamp light. She had to wince away the stars that showed up in her vision from the sudden brightness, but once they were away, she turned her head to her bedmate. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Naruto sat up quickly and pressed his back to the headboard. "You're, uhh… how old are you?"

"29."

He nodded. "Right. Sooo… have you ever been, you know, in love, before?"

Yugito took a while to answer. Unknown to him, that was a hard question to her. One she'd rather not think about, dwell on, and especially not verbalize to someone she had just met. "Once," she said finally.

"And what did it… feel like?"

Yugito leaned her head back and looked into nothing. "It felt… like the best thing I could describe. No, it was so great that I couldn't even begin to describe it."

"But…" Naruto couldn't look her in the eyes. "How did you know?"

Yugito shrugged and laughed a pitiful laugh. "How could I not? I was… I think I was a little bit older than you are now when he talked to me. Nobody had ever talked to me before like he did. It was like, he cared about me. But… he cared about _me_ , not the fact that I was powerful or a Jinchuuriki. Until that point I had told myself that I was probably going to be alone forever. Nobody would understand me. Nobody would love me. But then he did," Yugito's voice cracked. She shouldn't talk anymore. Why was she talking in the first place anyway? She didn't want these memories anymore.

"What happened? Is he… still around?"

Yugito shook her head. She didn't cry about it anymore, but it was always hard to talk about. "No, he's dead."

Naruto was struck into silence. "Oh… I'm sorry for your loss."

She couldn't help the blackened laughter bubbling from her lips. "My loss? You misunderstand. I was in love with him for all of two days. Just long enough to tell him I love him. Just long enough for him to take advantage of me and throw me away. Just long enough to be treated like a trophy."

For a few moments, the only thing audible in the room was the sound of their breathing. Naruto didn't know what to say and Yugito didn't feel like saying anything. Again, why didn't he know what to say in times like this?

He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm… I don't… I won't pity you."

Yugito first looked at his hand, then traced it up to his face, landing on his eyes last. His eyes were earnest. They were uncertain and trying to understand everything, but failing everywhere they went.

"It's just that…" he continued on. "You're, like, the most kickass person I've ever met. And I've met a lot of kickass people. You're a Jinchuuriki like me, but you've mastered your tailed beast. You've been alone for a long time, but you grit your teeth and you persevered. You're also strong, stronger than I am at least. Strong enough that I had to trick you to even get on even footing. And even then, you blew me away. The more I learn about you, the more I respect you."

Yugito looked him up and down a few times. He smiling now. Not a particularly big or intense smile. Not a smile that held hidden pity. It was a real smile. He was trying to understand her. And that was so much more than anyone had ever done for her.

"So even if people were dicks to you in the past, you'll get through it. Because you're strong. And if it helps at all, then at least know this: we're always going to be together. From now on till death do us part. And it feels good to know that I'm bound together with such a great person."

Her hand shakily fell on top of his on her shoulder and squeezed his fingers. They were brought down to her lap where she clasped the other around them. A few droplets of moisture from her eyes wetted them and made them slippery.

Why did what he said feel so good? He wasn't a wordsmith or a poet. He wasn't in love with her and he wasn't trying to console her. It was just that he spoke from the bottom of his heart. And she really liked that.

She sniffled once and only once. Wiping the tears off on her shoulder, she gulped down the knot in her throat and looked back at the man whose hand she was holding. "Thanks," she said, showing off a rare smile. "And if you think you're in love with Kurotsuchi, then you probably are. I think that's just the way it is. Then again, I don't really know any other way."

His cheeks burned up a little and he brought his attention downwards. "I… we talked together for hours. A lot about nothing. Just… the things we went through. What an average day was like, favorite colors, best friends, what we were trying to do. I want to talk to her more. I want to get to know her more… but…"

The woman pulled his arm towards her until she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and put her chin on top of his head. "But…"

"But I get the same feeling when I'm with Fu and… when I'm with you. I actually really like being around you guys. And I want to do it more. Is that weird? How can that be love?"

Yugito took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Who knows? Maybe it is love. But you can love people in different ways. Nothing has to be romantic or physical. You'll only really know for sure when you're in the moment."

Naruto pressed his ear against her chest. He could hear her heartbeat. It was slow and steady and loud, like a drum beating consistently, keeping the entire world to its proper rhythm. He fell asleep against that chest. All his troubles seemed to slip away, brought into line by that beating and made to seem unimportant.

Yugito leaned back against the pillows and closed her eyes as well.

Neither of them dreamed much that night. They slept deeply and soundly, tucked in the embrace of each other's arms.

00000000

The burrows were finished being dug. The puppets were in place and so were the explosives. Now, all they had to do was to wait for the most opportune moment to strike. Deidara chuckled himself to sleep.

Things would go off with a bang.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Temari would be lying if she said she didn't have any more reservations about the harem contract. In fact, she was still downright skeptical of it. But seeing that no one had cut off anybody's head as of yet, there might be a chance that everything could work out for the good. Of course, things could all go sideways at a moment's notice, but for the right now, things were looking up.

She knew she wasn't much of a cook, but even so, she was doing her best making omelets. She even diced up some meat and greens to go with a few of them. Part of that had to do with wanting the morning to roll out as quickly and efficiently as possible, and another part had to do with the tinge of nervousness she felt at knowing the five other members would be getting comfy in her house for a few days after they made it to sand. Kankuro liked his space and if anyone infringed on it, things would get dicey. Gaara was much, much better than he had ever been, but she had also never tried his patience and she didn't want to find what might happen if she did.

"These are really good."

Temari turned slightly to see Fu munching on one of the omelets she made with meat in the middle. There was a happy, somewhat sleep-hazy look on her face. It would appear that she had just gotten up if her tussed up hair were any indication. It was also only 6 in the morning, so that was a good sign too. "Thanks," Temari said.

"You nervous?"

Her hand reflexively tightened on the spatula. "A-About what?"

Fu lifted her head and started paying more attention to the girl from sand. "We're… all going to your home. I'm sorry if I assumed-"

"No, no it's fine," Temari said as she breathed out. "It just… it just all feels so weird, you know. Word probably hasn't reached them yet, so all the people I talk to, all my superiors, peers, and subordinates, they're all going to know that I'm a member of a harem. And that's a little…"

Fu chuckled a little bit. "Oh, come on. It's not like you're a mind-controlled drone in a secret cult. You're a symbol. And when they start feeling the benefits, I'm sure everyone's going to be looking at you a lot differently."

Temari took another deep breath and folded the omelet on the stove. Her free hand's index finger was tapping the counter rhythmically. "I… I guess you're right. Makes me feel kinda silly for feeling nervous."

"Ah, you're not silly. You just don't know what to feel. I don't either, by way. I don't think anyone does, actually. It's not like there's a precedent for harems."

"How wise," Mei said, coming around the corner with her usual airy smile. "Despite your youth, you don't appear quite so excitable as others in this contract."

And there was the remaining skepticism. Any free time she had yesterday was taken up when Mei had decided she didn't have enough clothes to wear, then when she was out of make-up, then when she was out of underwear, then when she needed to stock back up on her sweets and had practically forced Temari to tag along in order to give a second opinion, try the food, or to help carry the bags. Perhaps Mei wasn't an actively terrible person, but the decidedly carefree manner in which she behaved rubbed Temari in such a wrong way that she was practically always holding her tongue from lashing the older woman, reminding herself that she was very much weaker than Mei every time the urge appeared and that it wouldn't do the contract any good to provoke the woman.

Temari turned around with a little bit of apprehension, but allowed it go away once she realized Mei was at least wearing clothes this time. Granted, there was still a lot of cleavage to go around, but at least it wasn't showing through a transparent nighty.

The face attached to the pair of tits she was staring at noticed her gaze and smirked playfully. "Oh, is this a sign that I haven't picked up on?"

"Huh?" Temari asked, directing her eyes towards the woman's eyes.

Mei's eyebrows went up as she leaned forward over the kitchen table, showing off her cleavage even more. "I'm asking if you play for both sides~" Mei said in a deep and husky voice, extending the last word in a sensual manner.

Fu started cracking up while Temari could only look at her in confusion. "What?"

Taking a plate with an omelet still steaming with heat, Mei sat down and doubled down on her teasing. "So is it just the one side then? Oh, then how cruel fate can be. Like being a vegetarian in a five-star steakhouse."

Fu had to cover her mouth lest she splatter the table with half chewed egg. It wasn't Mei's teasing so much as it was Temari's confused reaction to it that was so funny.

The teased girl in question just shrugged and went back to making breakfast. She still had to fry up some bacon. Freshly slaughtered pig was a luxury in sand. Even if she could afford it due to her status, their family usually was in tune with the average person's diet sans the occasional meeting over a feast. "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"What she's implying…" Fu started out, gulping down the remnants of her omelet.

"Oh, don't tell her," Mei said, interrupting her. "It's more fun this way."

"Tell me what?" Temari asked, starting to get annoyed. "What's going on?"

"She was asking if you're a lesbian or not," Fu said.

And all the innuendo laced jokes didn't help in the slightest to lower the girl's boiling point.

First was a blush of embarrassment, then one of moderate anger. That was it. All memory of wanting the morning to go by smoothly was steamrolled by the pent up frustration that took over her mind. "You _are_ eating omelets made by a foreign ninja that has a history of war with your country. Could have easily poisoned it," Temari said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, but you wouldn't do that to such a bombshell like me, would you?" Mei asked, tossing her hair back and giving a charming smile. "Staring at me with such lust, it would behoove you to get in my good graces."

Temari smirked. "So you're not only beautiful, but you're humble too."

Mei's smile turned downwards slightly. "We all have to play to our strengths."

Temari nodded. "Oh, yeah, I know that. For example, I've spent countless hours honing the use of my war fan to the point to where I'm the most talented user of wind based chakra attacks in my country and maybe even the world and you… well, you show off your tits."

The smile was completely gone now. In its place was a face that promised untold pain and misery should the 'conversation' they were only beginning to have get any worse. "Do I have to remind you who exactly you're talking to? I'm the most powerful person in my village, liberator of the hidden mist, and user of two separate kekkai genkai."

"And now," Temari said, placing the last omelets on plates and putting them on the table. "You're just an old hag who lies about her age and couldn't get a date, so you sold your ass off in the name of peace to console yourself." Her eyes were squinted with righteousness and a haughty attitude was practically palpable around her person. "And it doesn't matter who you are or what station you inhabit, because we're all sister-wives now. So don't insinuate that I'm a lesbian and we'll get along swimmingly, okay?" She said the last bit with unrestrained malice.

Fu's eyes went wide and a scarlet blush of outrage colored Mei's face. She stood up so fast that the chair she had been sitting in was flung backwards a few feet. Acidic mist began to leak out of her mouth in small amounts. "And unless you have a deathwish," Mei ground out, taking a sudden step towards Temari, who leaned back a little. "Then you'll insinuate what you just insinuated a second time. Because there won't be a third if you do."

Temari smiled a little and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "You'd endanger the peace and prosperity of the continent over me saying that you couldn't get a date?"

"Temari…" Fu said, getting out of her chair as well, a hard look on her face.

Mei held up a hand to silence Fu and took a couple of deep breaths. The redness of her face vanished as she regained her composure. "You're poking a bear that you shouldn't, little girl."

"And I was of the understanding that you thought you were a bombshell, not a bear, old hag. I'm getting mixed messages here."

"Guys…" Fu said dangerously.

Mei's nose curled up into a snarl. It held there for a couple of seconds before her face returned to normal with a smug smile coming to fruition. "Oh, I know what your problem is…"

Temari huffed with fake laughter. "This should be good."

Holding both of her elbows with her hands, Mei shoved her chest out and practically shoved her tits in Temari's face. "You're just jealous that you don't have anything to work with. Plain face, flat chest, no ass, mockable fashion sense. Why, I have everything that you don't."

One of Temari's eyes twitched. Wind chakra began to gather in both of her hands. "Well at least I'm not a slut."

With that last remark, Mei twisted around and began a roundhouse kick aimed straight at Temari's gut, while the younger brought forth wind chakra in both palms and sharpened them together to make two blades. The two forces were about to collide, Mei's chakra enhanced kick and Temari's sharpened fingers, when a tan blur phased its way in between them.

The sound of two simultaneous smacks reverberated across the kitchen. Temari's and Mei's eyes widened to see Fu in between them, holding back both of their strikes using only her forearms. The only reason the appendages weren't broken or cut off was because they were covered in a purple exoskeleton of chitinous material. Her eyes had been overtaken with orange and there was a snarl of anger on her face.

Mei lowered her leg and Temari's hands went back to her sides, dispelling the wind chakra. "What the hell's wrong with you two?" Fu asked, voice markedly deeper, like it wasn't even her that was talking. "You were just fine moments ago."

Temari crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. "You can't tell me that you're not pissed the fuck off by everything that woman does, can you?"

Mei huffed and brought a mocking hand to her chin. "And _you_ can't tell me that what she said was very much over the line of anything warranted by what I've said or how I've acted. And I don't even know what your problem is. We had such a marvelous time yesterday."

Temari shook her head and huffed out of disbelief. "What was fun? You parading me through a whole host of stores just to show off that the only thing you really care about is maintaining your face or your cleavage line? Was I having fun while you flirted with practically everyone with a dick right in front of me? Was I having fun when you made me carry your shit?"

Mei's brow crossed. "If you weren't having fun, then why didn't you say so?"

"Who could be having fun in my position? If you were looking for a lapdog, then you should have just strung along some hapless moron who had more blood in his dick than his brain."

"I was trying to be nice," Mei said defensively. "I wanted us to get along so I brought you shopping with me. I thought it was going to be fun."

"We-" Temari's voice got caught in her throat for half a second. Her point died on its hill, making her lean back even further and sigh. "Well, I'm not exactly a fan of that. Clothes, makeup, gossip, sweets… I don't care about any of it. In fact, I absolutely hate that stuff. And I'm not exactly a fan of your… let's call it your 'suggestive nature'."

Mei crossed her arms and put most of her weight on one foot. "And _I'm_ sensitive about my age and dating habits. So please don't mention them again."

Biting the inside of her lip, Temari looked to the side and nodded.

Chomei's chakra receded back into its seal, forcing the changes to Fu's body to go away. She rubbed her wrists and stood up as tall as she could. "Okay, good. Now both of you apologize."

"Why should _I_ have to apologize?" Mei bit back. "She's the one who started it."

"You'll apologize because you said mean things too. You also shouldn't have brought Temari along with your trip if you noticed she wasn't having fun. And you're also the adult in this situation. And you," she said looking to Temari now. "You should have made your displeasure at being 'strung along' more known. And I don't think I have to remind you that it's not okay to bring things up that a person is very sensitive about. So, both of you apologize."

There was a still pause as all three waited for someone else to react first. Mei was gripping her elbows with her hands and Temari still was looking down and biting her cheek. Fu's eye twitched at the five second mark once she realized nobody was reacting. "If I have to count down from ten, so help me, I will spear you both to the walls with insect legs and force you into time-out."

Temari huffed. "I'm sorry, okay. I shouldn't have said the stuff I did. I'm nervous and scared and I'm under a lot of pressure and your constant presence didn't help any of that yesterday."

Mei's jaw clenched and unclenched before a labored sigh burst from her lips. "I should've realized you didn't like the things I like sooner. And I'm sorry I called you plain. But I refuse to change my affectations around you."

A small smile of relief came upon Fu's face. That settled out much more amicably than she thought it would and she was very appreciative of that fact. If she had to spend the rest of her life around passive aggressiveness, she might put a dagger to her throat. There weren't many things she hated more than people unable to express their feelings in a direct manner.

A mop of black hair showed itself from around the corner. "Is it safe to enter?" Kurotsuchi asked.

Mei got back into her seat and Fu followed suit, wolfing down her omelet and stacking another on her plate. "Yes," Mei said, somewhat drained of energy. "And how are you? You're not looking too good."

If the bags around her eyes and somewhat pallid skin texture were of any indication, Mei wasn't lying. Kurotsuchi sagged and cupped her eyes in her hand, rubbing the sleep out of them. "That noticeable? I didn't get any sleep last night."

Mei smirked. "Thinking of a certain blond haired stud? Don't worry, you'll find ways to catch sleep after your fantasies."

"Oh, hardy har har," Kurotsuchi said, sitting down at the counter and dishing herself up some breakfast as well. "Though it's not like there isn't truth to your statement. Granted, not the way you're thinking of. Well, most of the time."

"I'm sorry," Fu said, throwing her hat into the conversation. "I still want to know what happened last night."

"Ohohoho," Mei said, covering her mouth. "Does our favorite husband have a contender for love rival?"

Kurotsuchi's face brightened red and she turned to look away a little bit. "It's not like that. Er, at least I don't think it is. It's, uhm… it's confusing, I guess."

"Well, if you two could make your mind up soon, that would be much appreciated," Fu said, cutting into her food like usual.

Kurotsuchi's eyebrows furrowed. "And… why is it important to you?"

Fu paused mid-bite and stared at her in the eyes. Taking time to gulp down the food, she leaned back and said "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit interested in him. He's a Jinchuuriki, after all. And… you know, I'm a Jinchuuriki too. Plus, he's fun and kinda hot."

Mei looked at her a bit more seriously. "Oh… I was only playing around."

"And that's okay. I'm not," Fu turned her head to look at Kurotsuchi. "So if you two could set your boundaries soon… I just don't want any awkwardness between us."

Temari sat down at the table of three with her own omelet. The only thing that broke the pause developing between the four was the sound of Temari eating her food. Gulping, she said "I don't know, seems pretty awkward already."

"Wait…" Kurotsuchi said, holding a hand to her forehead. "You… like him? Why? How?"

Fu shrugged. "He's fun and he's cute. And he's also a Jinchuuriki, but mostly the first two. I- I think I said that already…"

"B-But… he's childish and stubborn and immature and completely annoying. He can't stand losing and takes completely illogical stances."

Fu narrowed her eyes a little bit and a wry smile popped up on her lips. "So I take it by your insulting him so much that he's fair game? If so, then grand. I always wanted to get a boyfriend in waterfall, but everyone kept me at an arm's length. Probably because of the beetle in my body."

"I… I didn't say that," Kurotsuchi said, blush reaching her forehead. "I-I just wanted to make sure you knew all the, err, pros and cons first."

Fu first glanced at Mei and Temari before returning her gaze back to Kurotsuchi. "I think you were only listing cons, unless I'm misunderstanding something."

Kurotsuchi looked down. "N-No, he has his good points, I guess-"

Fu clapped her hands together very loudly, cutting Kurotsuchi off and making everyone tense up from the sudden, unexpected sound. "Okay, look," she said, putting her mouth and chin in the fold between her two hands. "Like I said, I don't want to step on any toes. If you're calling dibs, I'll back off. If not, he's fair game."

The blush was starting to reach down to her neck. "I-It's not that simple. Can I have some time to think?"

An exasperated sigh belted from Fu's lips as she leaned back. "You're not being very fair here. If you're going to be like this, then why not let him decide, hm? Sounds good?"

Kurotsuchi leaned her head against her hands. For what felt like the first time in her life, she felt an honest-to-goodness heart-to-heart connection with someone. Last night, they had whiled the hours away just talking about everything and nothing at all. But she didn't know what she felt about him. For all the good time she had spent with him, she couldn't forget the pain of not having her mother around, or even just the frustration he had caused her in the clothing shop. All in all, she didn't know what she felt. And getting backed into a corner by Fu wasn't making things any easier.

"Where is our charming husband, by the way?" Mei asked.

Fu redirected her attention to Mei. "Oh, and actually, non-sequitur, sorry about this, I know you're all flirtatious and everything, but are you _actually_ interested in him like that? Because even if you are, I don't think I'm going to back down."

Mei hummed a small laughter. "How impetuous. If you really must know, then content yourself in the knowledge that I'm happy just observing for now. Just know that as the tides for one harbor falls, another rises."

Temari had to stifle her groan. Just listening to the woman was giving her a headache.

"And as for my previous question," Mei continued on. "He's not on the couch and I distinctly remember there not being enough rooms for all of us."

Kurotsuchi peered over to look at the couch in order to see for herself that it was empty. "Yeah… where is he?"

"He's with Yugito," Fu said simply.

Mei's eyebrows raised. "My, my, those two work faster than I thought."

Kurotsuchi's eyes glanced over at the stairs. "So do you think they'll be down soon? Or should we go and check?"

The entire table went silent as they stared at Kurotsuchi. "Not quite the reaction _I_ was expecting," Temari murmured.

"Seconded," Mei quipped. "Or perhaps are you not as opposed to the idea of sharing as you would first give off?" As she said this, her eyebrows wiggled suggestively at her, prompting a childish giggle from Fu. The girl wasn't expecting such a silly facial quirk from someone who acted the way Mei did.

If the small smirk coming to Kurotsuchi's lips were of any indication, she was starting to get over her prior embarrassment rather quickly. She didn't like feeling that way. _She_ was the one who made others' faces red from really anything that made sense for the situation. Embarrassment, frustration, anger, you name it. "Even if I was interested in him, which I may or may not be, I'm pretty sure that woman is the least of my competition. He's smart enough not to stick his dick in crazy."

"Which makes your battle an uphill one," Temari said, the side of her mouth curling up in a poorly restrained smile.

Kurotsuchi's face went blank. "Oh hardy har. You're hilarious. Truly are."

"Still though," Mei said with a flitting voice. "He is rather young. I get the impression he isn't too experienced in the ways of interacting with women. For all you know, you let him in the tiger's den."

The black haired girl shrugged. "He beat her off once, he can beat her off again."

"I don't think you have to worry about _him_ beating _her_ off," Temari said as her face contorted in trying to lessen the smile threatening to halve her face.

Fu and Mei shared a slight giggling session at Kurotsuchi's expense. "You know," the girl in question said. "I didn't really take you for the jokester of our merry little band."

"You make it too good to pass up," Temari said, not even trying to suppress the humor in her face and voice any more.

Kurotsuchi hid her face in her hands. "I just can't win, can I? I'm not crazy about this, am I?" she said, getting back on track. "They don't like each other. This isn't something I should worry about."

Mei shrugged, a somewhat serious air overtaking her more flirtatious one. "I believe it was only 24 hours ago that you two were at each other's throats. Who's to say that their squabbles haven't been healed in that time?"

Kurotsuchi glared at the plate in front of her. That couldn't be, right? When she was with him, she felt… well, for lack of a better term, she felt special. It might have just been a combination of the crazy events, timing, and her own desires, but…

The sound of a chair being pushed back slowly screeched through the air as Kurotsuchi sat up. Her eyes were hidden by her bangs as she said. "We're leaving soon, right? For all we know, they could still be asleep. I'm going to go check up on them."

The other three fell silent as they watched Kurotsuchi walk around the corner and held their baited breaths as they heard her step up the stairs at a measured pace. There was the sound of a door being opened and then closed two seconds later and then the sounds of her walking back down the stairs. When she turned the corner, it was difficult to read her expression because her head was down, but there was no hiding the practically neon red blush radiating from her face. She sat down without another word and hid her face in her arms on the table. "Fuck," was all she said.

Mei found no end to the hilarity of the situation. "I suppose they really do work fast."

00000000

The first thirty seconds of Yugito waking up was a bit of a roller coaster of emotions for her. First was the fact that she didn't recognize the room she woke up in. Second was she didn't recognize the chest she was sleeping on. Third was the fear that she had done something she might have regretted. Fourth was remembering the night before and realizing that there was nothing to be ashamed of. And fifth was the realization that she had shared what amounted to the most personal thing about herself to what was practically an acquaintance.

Finally, her eyelids drooped and her arms hugged his body closer to chest and face. Over the course of the night, their bodies had changed position to the opposite of what it had started out as, with her head laying on his chest, one of her arms wrapped around his stomach, and her legs wrapped around and entwined with his own legs.

 **"** **Sleep well kitten?"**

Yugito took a little bit to answer that. 'Yes…' she thought out slowly. 'Yes I did. Better than I think I ever have, in fact.'

 **"** **At least you're being honest with yourself now. When can I expect the litter then?"**

Yugito was too comfortable to get flustered by the cat's comments. The sun was showing through the window, warming her up considerably and making her not want to leave bed. Even without the sun, though, she would have been content to lay there for hours, soothed by the steady beat of Naruto's heart. She had no idea that the simple action of listening to another's heartbeat would be so… soothing.

She closed her eyes and pushed her head into his chest some more. 'I shared too much, didn't I?'

 **"** **I suppose you could call that one a matter of perspective. He certainly did seem different after his little tryst with the black haired girl. Maybe a bit more open? Honestly, you could learn a thing or two from him."**

He was still in deep slumber as Yugito slowly rubbed a hand up his torso. She had forgotten how good it felt to simply touch another person. 'No… no, I think I was right before. He needs someone at his own age at least. He's a good guy though. I'm okay with just… this.'

 **"** **I wouldn't be."**

'And you're not me.'

Matatabi slowly retreated back into her comfortable little space in Yugito's mindscape. **"** **Just keep an open mind, would you? Couldn't hurt."**

'You don't know that.'

The chakra construct paused. **"** **I suppose you're right."**

Naruto's breathing hitched and his chest tightened suddenly. Perhaps he wasn't as deep a sleeper as she had pegged him to be.

His bleary eyes opened to an unfamiliar room with an unfamiliar woman on his chest, stroking his body. "Who're you?" he mumbled out, disoriented by the suddenness of waking up.

Yugito sighed and pushed herself up to where she could look him in the eyes. Her eyes and face were neutral as she asked "Did you have a good sleep?"

He used one of his hands to rub the sleep out of his eyes. The other one had been numbed by her weight on it. "Yugito?"

She laid her head on his chest once more, very much on good terms with the idea of getting a little bit more sleep in. "The one and only," she said with a morning yawn.

Naruto caught the yawn and fell back on the pillow. "Mmm. You look different with your hair down."

Yugito hummed into his chest. "Better, I should hope."

Naruto nodded and said "Yup, better," before his brain could think of a reason why he shouldn't say that. He took in a deep breath and said "You smile nice too."

Yugito hummed into his chest again. "What do I smell like?"

"Hard work and determination."

Her torso thumped a few times from the laughter that threatened to spill from her mouth. "And what exactly does that smell like?"

"Blood and sweat," Naruto answered simply.

Her eyebrows scrunched together. She remembered using soaps and shampoos when she bathed the night before and she didn't get night sweats either. A grip of anxiety grabbed her stomach before Naruto pulled at the navy blue shirt he was wearing, identical to the one she had on. "I don't think you washed it," he said.

Yugito's eyes widened and her heart started beating faster, reddening her face and upper chest. How could she have forgotten that? She began to trip over her own words as she began to offer excuses and apologies, but he only chuckled a little bit and leaned back, pulling her tighter against him. "It's fine. I don't mind it," he said.

 **"** **If you had any sense, you'd jump him right here."**

"Shut up!" Yugito hissed.

"Huh?" Naruto asked.

Her eyes squinted closed from frustration. She really had to get a handle on that quirk of hers. "The cat was saying some weird things. Nevermind it."

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded. "So, why are you on my chest?"

"Do you want me to stop?"

"No… not really."

"That's good. Because I think I really like it."

It was Naruto's turn for a blush to light up on his face. He would have been content to lay there, stewing in slight embarrassment, for an extra hour or two, but Yugito had different plans. "Hey, uhm…" she started out unsurely. "I… I said some pretty… let's say, personal things last night. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable and I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it. You should probably just forget it."

Naruto was quick to say "No, no, it's fine. I also said some personal things, so it's okay. We're even on that at least."

Yugito cracked one of her eyes open and rotated her head so she could see his eyes. "What did you share that was so personal?"

The blush on his face didn't diminish as her gaze intensified. He couldn't look her in the eyes when he said "Y-You know… about that whole thing about us, er… all of us, the contract members, being kinda like a family. Now that I think about it… it's kinda weird, isn't it?"

Yugito went back to the way she was with a small smile on her lips. "I don't think so. I never really had a family, so who knows? Maybe this could be a good thing."

It was exactly at that moment that a shuffle was heard downstairs followed by two loud thumps and Fu berating someone or some people. Naruto had to laugh at the timing of it. "Or maybe not."

"It wouldn't be a family if there wasn't any fighting. The Raikage has an adopted brother and they're almost always at each other's throats. Well, the Raikage's always at Bee's throat. It could be that we're already more like a family than any of us thinks we are."

"Or," Naruto said. "We really are just two wrong steps from falling apart."

Yugito hummed into his chest. "That'd be a shame. I really like sleeping with you. Just might make it a habit."

She almost laughed when she felt his heart quicken its beat. Although the slight insinuation in her words had been unintentional, she wasn't above deriving humor from knowing that she was making him blush. Perhaps she and Matatabi had more in common than she thought?

"I-It was a good night's sleep…" Naruto said, head turned to the side as he suddenly found the color of the wall very interesting.

Yugito's eyes widened. She felt her cheeks heat up a little from his words. She had been joking about that. Mostly. A little. Actually very little. In fact, she was downright serious, but hid it with a joking tone. "Y-Yeah…"

"D-Do you… want to… make it a, you know, a habit?"

 **"** **I'm sure they won't hear downstairs. You could do it right here and now. Come** ** _on_** **he's giving you signs."**

"Uhm… we'll… yeah, maybe… Maybe."

The two of them sat there in happy-embarrassed silence for a few minutes, each with a goofy grin on their faces and neither daring to look each other directly.

"Well," Naruto said finally. "We should probably get ready for the day."

"Yeah," Yugito said quickly, having gotten a handle on her facial expression by then. Naruto tried to push himself up while Yugito tried to slide away from him. However, she got caught by his dead arm and slipped, pulling him down on her. It only lasted a second and nothing would have happened from the situation aside from a few good-natured chuckles and half-hearted apologies were it not for the fact that Kurotsuchi chose that exact time to open the door to Yugito's room, witnessing Naruto in the position of pinning Yugito against the bed in what would have appeared to be of lascivious nature.

The door closed, leaving both Naruto and Yugito with ruby red faces, each understanding the position they were in and becoming very self-conscious of it.

 **"** **Why are you like this?"** Matatabi lamented.

00000000

"How about this?" Fu asked energetically, grabbing a coat hanging from a wall and splaying it over her body. It was oversized for her by a great amount, but would have fit Naruto just fine. Black, gray and dark blue and made of sturdy materials. It would have been good for a stealth mission at night, but Naruto wasn't the kind of ninja who excelled in those areas. Having a predilection towards orange didn't really help that matter much.

Naruto shook his head slowly and tutted. "It's gotta feature orange in some way. Orange is the best color."

Fu smirked, put a hand to her chest and emphasized her orange irises. "Oh, you flatterer. First poor Yugito and now you set your lusty eyes on me? How will I cope? Why, I clutch at my pearls over such a thought." Everything she said was in jest, layered with a heavy coat of playful sarcasm, but it didn't stop the slightly indignant pout coming to Naruto's lips.

"For the last time, it was a misunderstanding," Naruto said pleadingly.

"It that what they're calling it nowadays?"

He couldn't help but laugh along with her. "Come on, stop teasing me. I don't… I wouldn't…" He put a hand to the nape of his neck and rubbed it there, bringing his gaze down and away from her. "I'm still getting used to this. I wouldn't… you know, do that."

Fu smirked and put the jacket back on the rack. "Oh, come on. It's been two days, of course you aren't used to it. No one is. And I don't think anyone ever will be. You just gotta keep moving forward and hope for the best. Now come on, we're on a tight schedule. You need some traveling clothes. The sooner we can get you out of Yugito's duds the better."

As she flittered off to find some suitable arrangements for Naruto, he couldn't help but smile. He was starting to really like her. She was like a ray of sunshine on a fall afternoon. The mere presence of her made him want to forget about everything and just live in the present.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself."

Naruto yelped in surprise and whirled around to face the intruder, only to find the somewhat amused face of Gaara staring back at him. Naruto put a hand to his chest and let it calm down a little bit. "You sneaky motherfucker," he said.

"Well I'm sorry that I don't run around the town announcing my presence the entirety of the human race," Gaara said, face unchanged from the pleasant look.

Naruto's eye twitched. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

He shrugged. "I thought it was funny."

The nine-tailed Jinchuuriki let a few humorless chuckles from his lips before saying "I think you need to work on your sense of humor a little bit."

Gaara dipped his head down in acknowledgement and looked back up at Fu off in the distance, piling different outfits on her shoulders to an almost comical degree. "How was your morning?"

"Full of misunderstandings," Naruto immediately replied, thinking back to how he stammered out his perspective of the situation he and Yugito were in that morning to the rest of the residents of the house with absolutely no help from the woman in question. "But no one died, so that's good," he said.

Gaara smiled. "Is that the new standard for how things fare? The fact that no one has died? Have things truly been that bad?"

"I got stabbed. That wasn't fun. I guess, to be fair, that was a kinda a big misunderstanding, but it still wasn't fun. Anyway, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at the gates?"

Gaara looked to the door. "I _have_ been at the gates. I was there for nearly an hour. When you were supposed to be there."

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "Do I look like I'm in any position to be going anywhere? A certain someone shredded my clothes."

"It wasn't my sister, I shouldn't hope."

"Did my dad kill your sister's mom?"

"I'm pretty sure I did that."

"Then the answer's no."

Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and nodded to himself. "Well at least you appear to be having fun. If anyone could manage to survive in this situation it would be you."

Naruto didn't look so convinced. "I'm not that special. Well, my dad was the fourth hokage. And I'm from a dying lineage, apparently. And I have one of the most powerful beings in the world sealed in my stomach. Still though, lineage aside, I'm not any different from anyone else on the street."

Gaara raised his brow at Naruto knowingly. "Perhaps you aren't aware of it, but you have the uncanny ability to attract people to you. Just talking to you makes people want to believe in you and to believe in themselves. People _want_ to like you."

Naruto scratched his cheek. "You're making me sound pretty cool. Might just get a big head."

"You're right. Your head's big enough as it is. Any more and it will threaten to pop."

They laughed together a little bit. "I guess your sense of humor isn't so bad."

"I should hope so."

"Hey," Fu said exuberantly, a large stack of duplicated items stacked on her shoulders and back. Her focus was squarely on Naruto for a few seconds until Gaara tilted his head forward and offered a hand.

"Hello," he said. "I don't think we've formally met."

Fu looked to him with a little bit of confusion before realization dawned on her. "Oh, you're the kazekage, aren't you? Do you two know each other? Oh wait, oops. Sorry," she grabbed his hand and shook it up and down. "Name's Fu. Nice to meet you. So you two know each other?"

"He's the only reason I'm able to live," Gaara said quite simply.

Fu gained an impish smirk and nudged Naruto in the side with her elbow. "You're more well connected than I thought. That's attractive, you know."

Naruto grinned nervously with a small blush staining his cheeks. Gaara found that amusing to no end. "I suppose I can sympathize with your lack of clothing, but if you could hurry it up, I think all the people waiting at the gates would be much appreciative."

"You can't rush perfection," Fu said. "Besides, you can just stall for time if you have to."

"I… don't… think-"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

A wailing scream echoed around the store followed by a gurgle and wet squelches, like someone was shoving their fist into a jellyfish. After the first scream, there was a cacophony of following panic and confusion.

The three friends needed only a single glance before they raced off to the epicenter of the scream. Fu percolated water swords on her arms, Naruto created two other shadow clones, and Gaara swirled his sand around him. People began running in the opposite direction the three were going. Some had blood stains on their clothes, but whether the blood was their own or someone else's was not readily apparent. The one thing they all had in common was a look of abject horror in their eyes.

It wasn't long before they came to the scene and beheld its contents. A civilian woman who had been repeatedly stabbed in the midsection was strung up in the air, held aloft by strings. Already, there was a growing pool of blood and offal on the ground below her. There were a few other civilians around her in various states of injury, but all were alive.

Next to them was a shop attendant entirely covered in blood with a sick smile on her face and a wicked knife in her hand. Her entire arm was discolored scarlet and she was completely still. Slowly, she looked up at the three of them. Her red stained smile grew bigger at the sight of them.

Fu was the first to react, popping forward and slashing the knife out of the woman's hand and pinning her to the ground in one move. Sand encroached on her legs to hold her in place and the Naruto clones ran out of the building to find the police. The original stared at the murdered woman, sickness floating around in his gut. He's seen some really terrible shit, but those were usually in the context of a battle. There, it was live or die and Naruto chose to live. Here, however…

He looked away and to the woman pinned to the ground. She wasn't struggling in the slightest. It was like she had completely accepted what had happened. Fu's mouth was set in a thin line, betraying no emotion at all. It was hard to imagine that she was the same girl who was ribbing him only seconds prior.

After spawning a few clones to help the wounded, Naruto knelt next to the woman and stared at her in the one open eye that was showing. It was unnatural, almost inhuman. "Why?" Naruto asked. He didn't know why he was asking the question. In truth, he hadn't expected much of any answer in return. But anything to justify the sudden and unprovoked bloodshed would have been appreciated.

The woman's mouth opened with a clack and sharpened needles spewed shot out of it with such force that they sunk halfway into any of Naruto's exposed flesh. His reflexes had been fast enough to cover his torso and head with his arms, but three needles sunk into his gut, two had pinged off his shins, and another stuck just under his kneecap, right in the tendon.

"Naruto!" Fu shouted before reaching back and spearing the woman's head to the ground with one of her swords. Less than the sound of squelching flesh, there was only the clack of a piece of wood getting hit. Fu's eyes widened. What she was pinning to the floor wasn't human. Gaara's sand covered the doll in its entirety and crushed it before she could react. There was the sound of metal being torn apart and wood splintering and then nothing.

Naruto was pulling out the needles when he said "W-What's going on?"

Fu rushed to his side and helped him up. The leg that got hit wasn't moving correctly under the knee and he could barely stand. "We have to get you help," she said. "The needles could have been poisoned."

"Poison doeshn't work on me," Naruto said, even as his words slurred and his vision doubled. "I… think?"

"It looks like the workings of a puppet," Gaara said, standing over the crushed remains of the doll. "The puppet user should be very near."

"Is it an invasion?" Fu asked.

Gaara stared at the doll, his mind trying to work out what was happening. "Sand is the only village that has puppets this complicated. And I would never..." he trailed off.

Fu began limping her way to the glass doors. Already, pandemonium was reigning supreme outside with ninja and citizen alike rushing to and fro, some bloodied and some not. All, however, didn't know what was going on and it showed on their scared faces.

Spitting up a bile liquid, Naruto's head started nodding up and down. His body was starting to feel numb. That wasn't a good thing. "Hey, Gaaaaraa…" Naruto slurred out, looking behind him at the redhead. "What doo youuu-"

And then the puppet Gaara was standing on exploded.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Last night

Matatabi got up slowly and lethargically from her prone position and started stretching out her spine. Naps were fine and good, but she needed to get up and pace around every now and then. And she was content to have tried to do that, until she heard the annoyed grumbling of one of her siblings emanate from somewhere near her. She was so surprised that she jolted a little bit and crouched down, baring her sharp teeth out of sheer reflex.

 **"** **Hide your fangs,"** a harsh voice grumbled. **"** **I see you're as quick to anger as ever, but you should be wary of who you threaten. You might just get bitten back."**

Matatabi's mouth fell down and she stood up as regally as she could. **"** **I was never quick to anger, if you remember. I've only ever simply refused to cow down to your unreasonableness."**

 **"** **As obstinate as ever, then."**

 **"** **You say that like it's a bad thing."**

 **"** **It is. From my perspective."**

 **"** **And the world doesn't revolve around you, does it?"**

Kurama's bloodshot, red eyes opened and his eyebrows slanted downwards. He got up in as menacing a position as he could and glared at her with all his might. **"** **What are you doing here? And where's your cage?"**

Matatabi nearly harrumphed out of smug haughtiness. **"** **If only you had the eyes to see what's right beneath your snout,"** she said sarcastically.

His eyes swiveled down to look at their Jinchuuriki's held in each other's arms and snoozing happily. They were in deep slumber and paid no attention to the world around them. **"** **So that's why you're here,"** he said. **"** **Where's your cage?"**

 **"** **Have you been asleep these past few days?"**

 **"** **Not much else to do around here."**

 **"** **You could chat with your Jinchuuriki."**

 **"** **Do not make fun of me. I'm not in the mood for it."**

Matatabi sighed. **"** **You're never in the mood for anything other than sulking and feeling bad for yourself, are you? You know, the world is so much more beautiful than you take it to be. You only need to let yourself have some of it."**

Kurama's lip curled into a snarl and his tails swished around him. **"** **Answer the question."**

The great construct of fiery chakra paced around the two Jinchuuriki on the floor and finally curled around them, flames licking at their bodies, steadying their minds from straying too far into a harmful dreamspace. **"** **I don't have a cage anymore."**

 **"** **Bullshit."**

 **"** **Do you see a cage?"**

 **"** **You know as well as I that cages can come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps you don't have a cage binding your movement anymore, but the fact that we're talking through a connection of Jinchuuriki means that you have a leash around your neck. And the one holding it is being nuzzled by you."**

Matatabi nearly laughed. **"** **You know nothing of my situation and yet you sit there, chained like a pitiful dog and decry both me and my Jinchuuriki. And I thought you were annoying and bullheaded before."**

A great cacophony of clanging rung out through the space as Kurama fought and clashed against his bars to no avail. **"** **If only there weren't bars between me and you; I'd rip you to shreds if I had the chance!"**

 **"** **But you don't,"** Matatabi said, protecting the ears of both Yugito and Naruto from the normally ear-shattering noise. **"** **And you never will. At least not the way you are."**

Kurama sat down, still snarling at her and said **"** **Okay, you say I don't know your situation. Enlighten me then. Tell me how far off the mark I am,"** he said through a condescending tone.

Matatabi looked down at her own Jinchuuriki wrapped in the arms of Kurama's. She was smiling. Perhaps from a good dream or something, Matatabi didn't really care, she just liked knowing that Yugito was smiling. It was a rare face she made. One that she didn't show anyone, not even her. She really hoped Yugito would benefit from the contract. She wasn't even that serious about her Jinchuuriki shacking up with Kurama's. She mostly saw it as a chance for her to make friends and real connections with other people.

 **"** **She's been through a lot, you know. Yours has too, I think. Just because we're sealed in them doesn't mean that we can't try to understand them. It doesn't mean we can't try to sympathize with their pain or talk to them. Isn't that what Hagaromo's wish was? For us all to try to understand each other?"**

Kurama growled lowly. **"** **Do not invoke that man's name in front of me. It was due to human's selfish greed that we are like this. Hagaromo failed spectacularly. We're not seen as conscious things with our own feelings and desires. We're weapons to those humans. We're tools. We're things. We're seen as the embodiment of hatred simply because we exist. Simply because we are born. And you would align yourself with one of them? You said you were obstinate? Maybe once, but no more. The moment your accepted the cage you were in was the moment you broke."**

Matatabi did not rise to his provocations or feel even the slightest bit of angers stir in her heart because of him. If anything, she only felt pity for him. **"** **I didn't accept her. Not at first. I was still angry. I wanted to be free. I wanted to run around and have control over my movements. And she… she didn't even know who she was. What she was. The people she grew up with hated her because of how she was born. Because of the power that she couldn't control. And she grew more distant and this… hole appeared in her heart. All this anger and detachment and sadness and fear and everything else that could consume someone was there. I could have taken it. I could have taken control and gained my freedom. Something stopped me, however. Can you guess what it was?"**

Kurama was silent.

 **"** **I brought her into the mindscape and I looked her in the eyes and I swear to everything holy in the world, it was like I was looking in a mirror. She was twisted and gnarled from the hatred. And when I saw her like that, I realized I was too. So I introduced myself and she introduced herself. And now… I just want her to be happy. So yes, maybe I still am in some proverbial cage. And yes, maybe I actually am just a cowed, broken thing. But you know what? I'm happy. I'm happy being next to her to share her misery and her triumphs. Can you say the same? Are you happy too?"**

Kurama huffed. **"** **And how could 'the embodiment of hatred' ever feel happy? I simply destroy. If that's what they show me. If that's the picture I'm painted as with no hope of ever telling my story. If that's what these fucking terrible, hypocritical, warmongering humans want to see me as, then who am I to not oblige them?"**

Matatabi smirked and laid her head down to rest. **"** **If you weren't paying attention earlier, then I may as well tell you now. Right now, there's a peace treaty. It's still young, but if it works, there could be no more war. And if there's no more war, there's no need for weapons. And if there's no need for weapons… then what good are you?"**

 **"** **You would predicate your existence by ingratiating yourself to their sensibilities? I'd rather die a dog's death. And besides, if history ever taught me anything, it's that humans desire destruction far more than either you or me ever could. This 'treaty' will fall apart. And we'll be right back to square one."**

 **"** **And if it doesn't?"**

 **"…"**

 **"** **Let's play a game then, you and I. A game of ideals. If the treaty works, if war is truly quashed, then you have to try to talk to your Jinchuuriki. You have to try to understand him."**

Kurama smirked. **"** **And if I win, you have to fry your Jinchuuriki's brain and take over her body, then escape."**

 **"** **Okay."**

Her chakra didn't fluctuate. As that simple, two syllable word floated from her mouth, there was not an ounce of insincerity, or hesitation in her voice. She was being serious. Deathly so.

 **"** **You're serious."**

Matatabi closed her eyes and tightened her body around the two Jinchuuriki even more. **"** **You may not have much faith in your Jinchuuriki, but I do. If there's someone who could save the world from itself, it would be him. He reminds me a lot of Asura, actually. He's thick headed and stubborn and sometimes loses his temper, but he always tries. He** ** _wants_** **to understand."**

 **"** **Asura failed too."**

 **"** **Maybe, but he might not."**

 **"** **The death of your 'friend' is a lot to wager over a maybe."**

 **"** **I'm not just wagering her life. I'm wagering your happiness."**

Matatabi's breathing evened out and Kurama didn't say another word more. He slinked off into the darkest reaches of his cell and tried to lay down as comfortably as he could.

He didn't sleep that night.

00000000

They didn't have much to do other than to stand around and wait for Naruto and Fu to come back, so the front gates were full of arguably the most dangerous and lethal shinobi known to man simply milling about and making idle chit chat. To any that might have passed by and or through the front gates, it would have been most definitely a surreal sight to see the Raikage and the Tsuchikage making snide remarks at each other, the Hokage trying her best to make small talk with the sand wife, the rock wife and the Mizukage straining through conversation while the leader of waterfall stood off a slight distance away and the cloud wife meditating under the shade of a tree.

Looking up at the blue sky with drifting white clouds hanging about, Temari bit her cheek a little bit and said "The weather's nice."

Tsunade nodded her head up and down a few times and responded with "That it is. How's the weather in sand? Should we expect… anything?"

Temari looked back down to the Hokage. "…It's the desert. It's going to be hot."

"So… sunscreen then?"

"Unless you want to tan or burn."

Tsunade brought a hand to her chin in silent thought. "Do you think I could pull off a tan?"

Temari shrugged. "I… wouldn't know. I usually just burn. The whole family does. So I'm not really an authority on tan fashion."

Tsunade outstretched her arm and looked down at it. She was a very pale woman. Trying to imagine her skin tone to be more along the lines of, say, Ai's, just sent her mind reeling. Tan to the nth degree probably wasn't the best idea. Maybe a moderate amount? Should she try a low SPF this time? Wait… she could just change the illusion. No, she didn't want to go down that rabbit hole. If she changed her skin it wouldn't be long before she started changing other things about herself.

"…Have you ever been to sand before?"

"A few times," Tsunade murmured. "But never for longer than a few hours."

"Ah," Temari said.

While a pregnant pause overtook their conversation, Kurotsuchi was having a very different one with Mei. Her face was flushed with a somewhat indignant frown on her face as she looked at the tall woman from a downward slant.

"You can't be much older than 18 or so. Don't you think that's a bit long in the tooth for this kind of thing?" Mei asked.

Kurotsuchi's eyebrow twitched. "I haven't been in a serious enough relationship to have justified it," she said evenly. It was a practiced response. One that she had used for a few people who had the unfortunate combination of being nosy and overly familiar.

"Such a thing doesn't require extreme intimacy."

Kurotsuchi's nose curled up. She was starting to see why Temari exploded at her the way she did. "It does to me."

"But to so obstinately hold on to something that doesn't hold any actual value… it's just your first, after all. And hopefully, it could lead to many more times after that."

"Can we drop this conversation, pretty please?" Kurotsuchi ground out through clenched teeth.

"Why, if you wanted to, I could get rid of it for you, right here and now."

The girl's eyes went wide from surprise. "Here? In front of everybody?"

Mei shrugged. "Why not? There aren't any rules against two women doing it. At least not in mist, there isn't. I'm not sure what stone's policy on it is…"

"It's… okay, for two women to do it, thank you very much. Stone isn't _that_ backwater. But- But, anyway. No. No thank you. I'm saving my first time for someone special," Kurotsuchi said this while looking away as a smattering of a blush colored her cheeks.

"Perhaps for a very special little blond…?" Mei asked, impish smile growing on her face.

Kurotsuchi's embarrassment vanished from her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. She sighed and looked up to the sky. "Still need time to figure it out. And when or if it does happen, by the way, you're not going to be privy to it," she said as she leveled an accusatory finger at the older woman.

"What's going on?"

Mei and Kurotsuchi's head snapped to Yugito, who had gotten up and walked over to them with neither noticing.

"My, we're just talking about the finer points of firsts and how important or unimportant they are on an individualistic scale," Mei said with her smile that hid all emotion.

"More like she was trying to cajole me into giving her my first right here and now."

One of Yugito's eyebrows raised a notch. "In front of everybody? In the dirt?"

"That's what I was saying!" Kurotsuchi said emphatically.

"I shouldn't think location would have much to do with it," Mei said.

"But…" Yugito said, looking at the ground. "In the dirt?"

"Well where would your preferable location be?"

"Indoors, like almost everybody else in the world."

"Hold on," Kurotsuchi said, holding a hand up. "I think I'm going to take Mei's side on this one. Just indoors? That's a little bit limiting, isn't it?"

Yugito looked like she considered herself the only sane person in an asylum. "For your first time at least. You'd want to have your first time outdoors in front of people? I'm not a prude, but I do have lines."

"And where was your first, Ms. Judgey?" Mei asked, getting a little bit annoyed.

After a little bit of hesitation, Yugito replied with "At home. In my bed. With the person I… I thought I loved."

Kurotsuchi and Mei shared a knowing look. "I think," Kurotsuchi started.

"That we're talking about two different things," Mei finished.

Yugito looked from one wife to the other, quizzical brow raised at them. "Are you not talking about sex?"

"We were talking about kisses," Kurotsuchi said, giggling. Mei raised a hand to her face to hide a smile of her own.

"First kisses?" Yugito asked, ending with a leveled star at Kurotsuchi. "Don't you think you're a bit long in the tooth for th-"

"Oh, shut up," Kurotsuchi interrupted indignantly, prompting Mei to lean over, trying to hide her laughter best she could and Yugito to smirk to herself.

It was fun to talking to people, she decided.

"When do you… think…" Mei trailed off, forgetting her sentence as she stared up at the sky. Kurotsuchi and Yugito followed her somewhat worried gaze.

"What's going on?" Kurotsuchi asked.

The sky was a solid blue with small splotches of clouds lazing about. All were relatively the same size or shape except for one. It was swirling and twirling inside of itself to a very odd degree. And it was the only one seemingly affected, so it was hard to put it under the excuse of weather phenomenon.

"That… doesn't look right?" Yugito whispered.

Just as the small flickers of fear blossomed in their chests, the cloud they were staring erupted and dispersed as a small white object rocketed out of the bottom of it directly towards the hidden leaf, leaving a small trail in its wake. Its journey was less than a second long and when it hit the ground, a plume of fire and smoke flew up. Half a second later, the sudden boom and shockwave hit them in their stomachs and grabbed a hold of their hearts.

There was usually a warning of an attack. An awareness of some sort. The knowledge that you were in hostile territory or that you were wanted dead. That wasn't there in this situation. There was no agitation amongst the countries at the moment. There was nothing to warrant an attack. Like a knife in the back of someone you trusted your life with, the attack shook everyone to their very core.

But they were also battle hardened shinobi. They were used to such things occurring every now and then.

"Spread out!" Tsunade shouted, already running towards the city. "Contain the problem! Help the wounded!"

They were vague orders, but everyone who heard her knew exactly what to do. Everyone ran out with one purpose, one order, one understanding of what do should be done.

They were to help an ally in their time of need.

00000000

"NOOO!" Fu shouted, holding her forearm over her eyes to shield them from the smoke and flying miniscule particles. When she dared look again, she saw naught but a smoking crater and the remnants of the puppet that exploded. There was no sign of Gaara anywhere.

Her shoulder trembled. Looking down, she realized that Naruto was leaking foam from his mouth and his face was starting to turn purple. The arm that encircled her shoulders was starting to go limp. What kind of poison was that? Who should she help first? Where should she go? What should-

"No," Fu ground out, eyes getting focused. She stopped thinking. She started doing.

First things first, attend to the wounded before looking for the dead.

Running over to the nearest wall, Fu laid Naruto down and took off his already ruined shirt to look at the puncture marks. It wasn't even completely off before she gasped from surprise. Where he had been punctured by the needles, there were growing strands of purplish veins coming from very bruised skin. The injuries were growing so fast that she could see it advance on, eventually becoming a singular localized mass of diseased flesh.

Seconds things second, compartmentalize, then help.

Jinchuuriki's were all pretty much immune to poison and venom from her experience. Naruto shouldn't be any different. His beast's chakra should be helping him, but it wasn't. Why wasn't it?

"Okay," Fu said, breathing out before laying both her hands on his decaying flesh and channeling chakra into him, creating a forced connection. "Time to find out," she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes.

When she opened them, she and Naruto were in much the same position, but in a drastically different setting. Water was leaking in from nearly everywhere in as little volumes as small dribbles all the way up to waterfalls coming from the pipes and walls. That wasn't a healthy chakra system. No way in hell.

Directly in front of them was a cage covered in a pitch blackness. There was no other sound other than her worried breathing and the dribbling of water.

 **"** **Hey! Kurama!"** a shrill voice shouted out from behind her. **"** **What are you doing!? Your host is about to die!"**

The rush of water being displaced nearly upended her and Naruto from their positions. Fu leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Naruto's unresponsive form to keep him in place. When the water settled and she dared look back up, she was staring at the bloodshot eyes of a terrible beast. With a maw full of sharp teeth and a disjointed, human-like upper body and most importantly, eyes full of hatred and rage. "Please," she urged. "You have to help him."

 **"** **Yeah,"** Chomei added. **"** **Your host is about to die! You have to save him."**

Kurama huffed to himself in quiet laughter. **"** **I always hated that term,"** he said. **"** **It makes it sound like I'm more akin to a parasite than a prisoner. Host and parasite living in harmony? Don't make me laugh."**

 **"** **But- he'll- you'll. You need him to live!"** Chomei shouted, not understanding of what was happening. **"** **If he dies, you'll die."**

 **"** **So be it. If I am to live as a parasite for all of eternity, I'd rather die with the scant dignity a** ** _prisoner_** **is afforded."**

 **"** **But- But… The seal you're in leaks out your chakra constantly. This isn't a matter of him taking your chakra or not. This is a matter of you hoarding yours to kill both of yourselves!"**

 **"** **If my container is so weak so as to rely on my existence for his own, then that's his problem. Not mine."**

 **"** **Bu-"**

"Chomei!" Fu shouted out, squinting her eyes closed. Her fingers were clenched so hard into her palm that she might have bled if she were corporeal. "There's no time. Just give him your chakra!"

Chomei backed up a little bit, flabbergasted by such a suggestion. **"** **W-What?"**

"It's all the same, isn't it? Just give him your chakra! Quick, there's no time!"

Looking back up to Kurama, Chomei and the other beast shared an indecipherable look. **"** **T-That's never been done before. We don't kno-"**

"How many times do I have to repeat myself?!" Fu shouted out, voice cracking midway through. His body was getting cold in her arms. Looking at his fingers, Fu's gut sank at how blue his fingers were. "There's no time," Fu whispered. It was happening again. She didn't want to lose anyone ever again and here she was, holding a dying person in her arms that she wasn't strong enough to protect.

"There's no time," Fu said to herself in despair.

00000000

The pandemonium inside the village lasted for all of ten minutes. Although that might sound like a small amount of time, in battle, life was decided in a matter of seconds. Ten minutes passing was enough for hundreds, even thousands to be killed.

That being said, Konoha had been through much worse before. Humanoid puppets running around and sowing discord was much less destructive than a giant, three headed snake smashing through the village's walls. The interspersed explosions didn't help matters at all, but was still much less destructive.

And so, with no exact objectives set in their minds, the four remaining wives of Naruto Uzumaki set out to do their best to aid people of Konoha. Whether that meant administering first aid to wounded soldiers or citizenry, fighting walking automatons, or dodging out of the way of explosions, they all did their best to help.

All except for Temari, who made a beeline to where her brother said he would be last: with Naruto and Fu at a clothing store in the shopping district.

She shouldn't have been afraid for him; he was ten times stronger than she ever could be, but there was still a sisterly protective feeling that she had for him. She had to know he was safe, even if that meant just being able to look up at him floating on a cloud of sand.

Shaking her head, Temari got back to the task at hand. Most of the dolls were taken care of by the time she got to the shopping district. So much so, that she only ran into one and had summarily reduced it to wooden splinters in no time. It seemed that most of everyone's attention was firmly on damage control; helping people, putting out fires, the works. On her way over, a few leaf shinobi gave her dirty, suspicious looks, but they didn't try anything. They were still confused and looking for direction and seeing Temari, a sand shinobi, probably didn't conjure much images of trust in their eyes, what with her country invading theirs only a scant few years ago, but they all recognized her from the ceremony. It was enough for them not to act on impulses. International incidents and all. More than death, shinobi were scared of starting those the most. They last for years and was the main reason for so much strife over the centuries. The words of Jiraiya echoed in their heads and stayed their blades.

Which was good for Temari, because she didn't pay them much mind. She was too busy looking into the windows of the stores, grasping for hints of clothing that might indicate it was a boutique. She was starting to get worried. Gaara was not afraid to make big shows of power to help ease the populace. Seeing a giant sand titan on your side was quite the morale booster, after all. But that wasn't to be seen. Hell, he usually surveyed things from above to see how he could help. The fact that she had seen neither hide nor hair of him was worry provoking.

In front of a store, indistinguishable from others due its charred outside and blackened windows, was a man lying prone on the ground taking in shallow breaths while clutching his right arm. Temari immediately knelt down and gave him a look over. Other than the bleeding arm, he seemed to be alright, just fevered and delirious.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taking out a scroll with bandages sealed inside while she did so.

He grunted out in pain. His face was cold, pale, and clammy. Sweat covered his brow and it looked like it took momentous effort to even tilt his head upwards. "T-The… monsters…"

Temari shushed him and tried to pry his hand away from his shoulder. "It's okay," she murmured above his head. He was weak and couldn't even try to hold onto his arm with her trying to pry it off, but he kept at it with a zeal she had never seen before. It was like he was keeping a hold of something that hid danger. She tried to wipe away the blood, but it never came off correctly. She wiped and wiped at it, confused at what was happening, until she realized the blood wasn't on his skin, it was under it.

In fact, looking at the rest of his arm, she saw that a dark purplish red had encroached on nearly all his exposed skin, from the forearm leading up to the shoulder and down to the chest. He'd been struck with a venomous poison she had never seen before. It didn't matter if she got the antidote in time, he was a dead man, insides ravaged by the effects already.

Tossing away the bloodied bandages, Temari grabbed his face instead and looked into his eyes. "What. Did. You. See?" She ground out loudly and concisely. This man was the first one she saw with such terrible wounds. The one controlling the puppets had to be near.

"Sand," he gasped out. His lips were turning blue. "Sand… and explosions."

Her fingers nearly dug into his cheeks. "Did you see Gaara?" she asked frantically. "Where is he?"

The man slapped the ground with one hand. "Red hair… sewers."

Just as she was about to hold the man's hand and comfort him as he passed away, a most strange incident occurred. A pure white bird no larger than her fist fluttered down from the heavens and landed on his chest. It looked around a few times before hopping up to his neck and pressing its face down on his cheek.

Temari looked on with confusion. "What… the…"

The man smiled and happiness engulfed him. It must have been a sign from the heavens.

Then the bird exploded, tossing Temari away from him and completely destroying everything above that man's shoulders. It was like someone wearing molten hot, steel toed boots had kicked her in the chest five times at once. She landed a few feet away in a clump, shell shocked and confused. What had just happened?

"RRAAHHHHHHAAAAAAHAAAAAH!"

A horrid, ear-tearing shriek melted out from the charred store. Temari had to slap her hands to her head to try to end the onslaught on her senses, but no such help came. It was like the sound penetrated through her very skin. The scream ended just long enough for the doors to the store to be blasted apart and away with so much force that the glass was turned into a fine powder.

Where the doors used to be was a strange beast. It was hunched forward, nearly scraping the ground with its fingers. A red shroud of chakra coated its entirety, but strange, physical artifacts littered its body. Compound eyes, arms covered in a purplish gray exoskeleton, chest distended forward, malformed wings twitching on its back. But the worst of all was just the way it moved. There was no such thing as fluid motion with this creature. It moved so fast in such small increments that it was almost like it was teleporting every second. Like there were pieces of motion cut out in a movie. All in all, it was like an evil combination of bug and human, but there was something still on it that told her exactly what it used to be.

There was yellow blond hair on its head and the clothing that still hung on by threads was navy blue, belonging to Yugito and worn by Naruto.

Temari looked on in horror at the indignity to humanity that stood before her. What had happened to him? Where was her brother? What was even happening?


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kurotsuchi shook her head to get rid of the fuzzies and turned around to glare at the individual still standing tall and proud in front of her. There was a dribble of blood coming down from the corner of her forehead. The scratch was superficial, but it was bleeding a lot. Her worst injury was the disorientation from having just been exploded in front of. If she were a foot closer to the puppet when it detonated, her injuries would have been a lot worse.

Spitting the bile that had accumulated in her mouth out, Kurotsuchi braced herself and held her katana in front of her body as straight as she could. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see civilians fleeing the scene, holding themselves up and dusting each other off as they fled. It made her feel good that she was of some help, but up against exploding automatons… well, that wasn't exactly something she had braced herself before when training her skills. There wasn't much she could do to incapacitate a walking bomb.

Not unless she got real crafty.

Its mouth clacked open and she was immediately assaulted with poisoned needles. Faster than her brain could think, Kurotsuchi's hands were on the ground with chakra flowing through them. A wall of earth came up just in time to stop the first needles from hitting her. With not even time to let go of the breath she had been holding, a hand grabbed the edge of her wall and flung the rest of its body around, other arm outreached with a wicked dagger in its hand. Kurotsuchi grabbed her sword from the ground and brought it up to parry away the dagger.

Again and again, it came at her with a suicidal glee that was gone from most other opponents. She could only barely avoid the dagger that came at her, the poisoned needles that launched from various points on its body, and the wood reinforced punches and kicks that came from it like a tidal wave. She could barely get an attack out and eventually felt herself being backed up against the wall to a residence.

There were a few things she had gleaned from her dance with the first puppet. The first being that they didn't take environmental factors into mind when attacking.

Kurotsuchi ducked underneath a jab and before it could react, grabbed the handle of the door she was pressed next to, and turned it down. When the puppet wound up to stab her, she flung the door open and clocked it in the side. Despite its mechanical nature, whenever it was presented with new information it would stall out for a fraction of a second. Kurotsuchi used this short period of time to whip her sword around, cutting both of its arms off at the elbow, and kicked it in the chest. It flew back to the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust, completely unable to right itself.

The second thing she gleaned was that the puppets tended towards the nuclear option when threatened.

She slapped both her palms to the ground as quick as she could and turned the earth underneath both dismembered arms into a quicksand-like substance, then solidified the earth as soon as they were submerged. The arms exploded, but at least the impact was directed upwards instead of outwards this time, sparing Kurotsuchi more consternation.

When she turned around to face the hobbling remainder of the puppet, she re-steadied her form. This time, her arms weren't shaking as her chest swelled with newfound confidence. She was ready for battle. She was ready to bury that fucking puppet.

What she wasn't ready for was for it to cock its head to the side and for its mouth to clack shut. Its eyes went from unfocused and dull to almost humanlike. "Hmm…" it droned out mechanically. "You're one of the girls aren't you?"

Her eyes widened from surprise. "How…" she said slowly, very wary of every movement it made. "No, _what_ do you know?"

There was a sick mechanical crunching whir as its chest shuddered. It took Kurotsuchi a second to realize it was laughing. "About as much as the layman. Enough to know that you're… special."

Kurotsuchi's skin bristled as it spoke.

"I believe you know my partner… a rather loud fellow with an unstable appreciation of art."

Her blood went cold. Not Deidara. It couldn't be.

The puppet's wooden, segmented chest clacked away and fell off showing a viscous white underbelly attached to the entire skeleton. It was Deidara's special clay explosive, all but confirming her fears.

"What are you doing here?" she growled out. "Who paid for this?"

The puppet chuckled again, making her want to tear out her ears. "I think I've spoken enough."

Kurotsuchi redoubled the grip on her sword. "To fighting then?"

The puppet shook its head. "I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to stall you. Honestly, with everything in disarray, we agreed that it would be best to complete our mission and nothing more. Overstepping might do more harm than good, after all. And we just completed our mission. There's nothing more you can do. He's dead now."

Kurotsuchi gulped. "Who?"

Just as she asked that question, a wave of intense, nauseating fear and hatred assaulted every sense she knew. It was similar to the one she felt when Naruto and Yugito went haywire a couple days ago, but so much worse. Like an already caustic force turned downright insidious. Looking up, she saw a slight red haze over a certain part of the city.

The feeling was so bad that even the puppet took notice. "This… was unexpected. But then again, we're not the ones who need to clean this mess up. You're th-"

The puppet was unable to finish its sentence due to the hyper pressurized stream of water that crashed into its chest and obliterated it down to dust, not even letting the clay the time to explode.

Mei landed next to Kurotsuchi and stared at the trench in the earth that her jutsu caused. She put a hand on Kurotsuchi's shoulder and gently asked "Can you move on?"

Kurotsuchi shook her head, gulped down the bile and nodded. "What… what is this? Do you know what's happening?"

Mei shook her head. "If only. However, I've an uncanny feeling that a mutual acquaintance of ours is in need of our help."

Kurotsuchi sheathed her sword and looked up at the red haze. Mei was completely serious now. Rather than making her feel safe, it just compounded the utter _wrongness_ of the whole situation.

"Whoever's responsible," Mei said. "This isn't good."

Kurotsuchi shook her head. "Nothing ever is."

00000000

Temari scooted away as Naruto flickered his way into the street. Her insides were churning over themselves, screaming at her to get away from that eldritch horror, but her muscles were locked in fright. How could something like that even exist? How could something of that magnitude of complete and utter corruption be alive?

How could it be Naruto?

The debris in front of the store he emerged from shifted around and a charred and dusted Fu stumbled out, holding her stomach with one arm and holding onto a pole with the other. The arm around her stomach was stained red with blood. "Naruto…" she gasped, barely audible.

He paid her no mind and instead set his sights to the dusty ground. Like a jackhammer cranked to its highest setting, his arms blurred as they impacted the ground over and over again. Rocks and dirt flew away from him at such high velocities that they might have been considered bullets.

Seeing Fu injured was enough of an impetus on her body to move. Temari scrambled up and away from the cloud of dust that Naruto was becoming and rushed her way over the tanned girl. Temari hooked Fu's free arm over her shoulder and carried her over to a standing wall, setting her down as gingerly as she could.

"Where are you hurt?" Temari asked worriedly. She didn't have any first aid kits on her. Hell, the only thing she had was her war fan and a couple of kunai. How could she have known and prepared for an invasion?

Fu shoved Temari off with a surprising amount of force behind it. "I'm… fine," she gasped out. "You have… to stop him."

Temari looked behind her. Where Naruto had been, there was now only a hole in the ground that spat out dirt and chunks of rock and metal. Her experience with her youngest brother's rampages had taught her that staying the hell away from him when he went mental was the best idea possible. Trying to stop him was tantamount to suicide at that point.

Shaking her head, Temari said "No. Right now, you're the priority. Move your arm."

Fu's nose curled up from frustration. "I told you… I'm fine. If we don't stop him…" She trailed off, but even as she spoke, her arm fell away from her stomach, showing a ragged cut going cleanly across it. It wasn't deep enough to cause internal trouble, but it definitely wasn't superficial.

Temari cursed under her breath and starting ripping off stretches of her kimono to act as bandages. Although the cut didn't look good, it shouldn't have been enough to make Fu nearly unable to move. Had she also hit her head?

"He…" Fu started. "He took some of Chomei's chakra."

"Who's Chomei?" Temari asked, laying the strips of cloth over the bleeding wound somewhat haphazardly.

"The… Seven tailed beetle. Kurama's… er, the nine tailed fox's special ability is that it can share its chakra and detect malice. Something… must have gone wrong. When Chomei tried to share her chakra, something took a hold of it and ripped some away. He went past stage two and is already at a partial transformation."

Temari's head swam with the new information. "So what do we do? Just wait for it go away on its own?"

Fu slowly shook her head. "I think… I'm too weak. I acted as a medium for the chakra and I got overloaded. And the… the chakra doesn't go away on its own. He's going to be like that until the chakra gets expelled somehow."

"And how do we do that?" The bandages were in place and tied up. They were quickly getting logged with blood, but not at the rate that Temari would have thought. The Jinchuuriki might heal quicker than normal humans, but they still needed rest. Fu was out of the fight for now.

"I don't know. He's not of the right mind right now. The only thing he reacts to is hatred right now. You have to fight him. You have to make him use his strength so that he can grow weaker."

" _I_ have to fight him? Listen, I'm not a pushover, but Jinchuuriki are on a different level for me. They are for everyone. That's why they were made."

Fu practically growled out of frustration. "If left to his own devices… you don't know how much havoc a Jinchuuriki can wreak on a population."

Oh, but she did. She knew all too well.

Temari gulped and took a hold of her war fan. Turning around to face the hole that was now quiet, she felt fear enter her limbs. Her father wasn't there anymore to soothe Gaara and save her and the village. If the people of the hidden leaf were to have any chance, she was going to have to risk her life down there to fight her husband. And she still didn't know where her brother was.

There were two subsequent thumps to her side. Turning, Temari saw the stoic face of Mei and the ashen one of Kurotsuchi. "What's the situation?" Mei asked in her leader voice.

Temari's spine straightened out of reflex. "Naruto took some of Fu's chakra and is now in a… partial transformation into her tailed beast, I think. He's crazy and dug a hole. If we don't stop him, he could go on a rampage on the civilians."

"Any information on the people perpetrating the invasion?"

Temari looked at a stray puppet appendage. "…These puppets are definitely sand make, but we didn't do this. It has to be an outside source."

"Are there any missing ninja who have the capabilities to pull this off?"

Temari shook her head and looked down. "I… I don't know. There are a few missing ninja puppeteers, but none who could do this."

"And also," Kurotsuchi interrupted. "There's also Deidara, so this is officially an attack from the akatsuki."

"Who's Deidara?" Temari asked.

"A terrorist psychopath who can blow shit up by using his hands to eat clay," Kurotsuchi said with little emotion in her voice. "He's also the guy who nearly killed me when I was a kid when he escaped the village. A few of my friends weren't as lucky as I was."

"And if he's here…" Mei started, staring at the hole dug by Naruto.

"Then we're in deep shit," Kurotsuchi finished.

Mei clapped her hands and began walking to the hole. "No time like the present. Let's go."

Kurotsuchi looked from the hole to her a few times in confusion. "Excuse me, what's the plan?"

"Naruto made that hole," Temari said. "We're going after him."

"And if he's in monster mode right now, then we're dead."

"Not necessarily," Fu wheezed out.

Everyone looked at the pained girl expectantly. "He was... he was after something, or someone. I think he might have a bead on Deidara or whoever. He can sense hate, after all."

Kurotsuchi and Temari shared a look. "I'm pretty sure more than just the baddies are feeling hate right about now."

Fu shook her head. "It's not… like that. Just… go. He could be in grave danger."

Kurotsuchi could still feel the lingering sense of overwhelming hatred. If she got close to whatever was making it, she couldn't be sure she would be able to even move, much less fight. But even so, she felt compelled to go after him anyway. She walked up to the hole and peered in. After a few feet, all light vanished and was consumed by a pitch black. Going down there would be a leap of faith.

Did she have faith in him?

While she was mentally contemplating this, Mei had already lowered herself halfway down the hole. Mei acted like it was such a natural occurrence that Kurotsuchi was taken by surprise. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Mei paused and sighed. "Are you going to help, or not? Either way, I'm saving him. You do whatever you want. It's not like I'm your commanding officer."

"But why are you helping him?" Kurotsuchi asked.

Mei's face went stone cold and she stared Kurotsuchi straight in the eyes. "Have you ever been to war?" Not waiting for an answer, Mei looked away and started descending again. "I have. Sooner or later, you stop caring about lines or allegiances. You just want people to stop suffering. I don't care if his dad killed your mom or whatever. If he can be saved, you can be damn well sure I'll be saving him."

And with that, her amber hair vanished into the dark. Temari stepped up next and peered distastefully downwards. She sighed ruefully and started climbing down as well.

"You too?" Kurotsuchi asked. "You don't have any reason to save him."

"He's my brother's best friend," Temari answered quickly. "He's the one who saved him. He might not be the smartest or most mature, but he doesn't give up on people. What would I be if did any less?"

"Completely justified?"

Temari gave her a half-lidded look. "If you're scared, feel free to stay behind and help in other ways. Honestly, I'm not too sure how much help I'm going to be down here and trying might just be me being foolish. But sometimes, people have the right to act foolishly."

Her sandy head vanished into the darkness next. Kurotsuchi could still feel the animosity in the air. How were they able to move so surely?

Kurotsuchi turned around to look at Fu. Her eyelids were flickering from the exhaustion, but she had no doubt in her mind that that girl would also jump in that hole without a moment's notice either. They couldn't be selfless, could they? They were ninja. They weren't supposed to trust each other.

That being said, Naruto had something about him that made her feel a certain gravitation towards him. Maybe it was the 'never giving up' when it came to people. Such a simple sounding ideal, yet something also so rare in the world.

Would he jump after her if the scenario were switched?

Absolutely.

Would she do the same for him?

Kurotsuchi grumbled a little bit unhappily to herself as she lowered herself down into the hole.

00000000

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH-ACK!"

Kurotsuchi painfully got up and rubbed her sore ass, which had just fallen about six feet downwards. Luckily, the fall had missed her tailbone, but a sore ass was never a pleasant feeling. As soon as she tried to get breath, her nose was clogged with the overwhelming stench of feces. It was so bad that she had to cover the entire lower half of her face with her hands, not that it did much.

She was poked twice on either side of the bridge of her nose and suddenly all scent was gone. Her eyes blinked open and she slowly released her face from her own hold. There was a floating, ephemeral light holding in place, casting a blue glow on Mei and Temari.

"So you decided to come down?" Temari asked.

"Where are we?" Kurotsuchi asked, ignoring the question entirely.

"Sewers, probably," Mei said. "Poor visibility, poor footing, tight hallways, sharp corners… I won't lie, this very well could be a death trap. We're just lucky that Konoha has good sewers, else we'd be knee deep. Literally."

Kurotsuchi looked at the ground she was on. It was stained, paved stone next to a river of village waste. It was set up in such a way that they could perform maintenance whenever they pleased without opening up the streets. A good sewage system was practically a must for any metropolitan area, but Kurotsuchi had never even heard of such sophisticated development. Her village was reliant on there being a slope under the city to carry away the sewage using gravity. And if there was ever a clog…

She shook her head. This wasn't the time for inane thoughts. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"A sign," Temari offered. "We have to find him first."

"Can't we just… follow the hatred? It's like… really bad."

Mei shook her head. "No, first-"

"AAAAARRRRRRRRRREEEEEECH"

The three winced at the echoing screech and following bombardment. The ground vibrated underneath their feet and their inner ears were confused. After a few seconds, the vibrations died down and left Kurotsuchi with a very unsettled feeling in her gut. Perhaps this wasn't the most well-thought out of plans.

Mei seemed to think otherwise. Narrowing her eyes, Mei nodded and turned to a sudden direction. "We're going this way. Look at all your surroundings. You don't know where enemies could be hiding."

"And," Kurotsuchi added. "Give white clay a wide berth. That's the shit that explodes."

Temari unwound her war fan as Kurotsuchi readied her katana in her hands. Despite their trepidation, their hearts were held strong.

They were going to save him

They were going to save everybody.

Kurotsuchi and Temari set after Mei's brisk pace with both their weapons in front of them. As they walked, they heard the sounds of wood clacking against stone echo from far away from them, reverberating across the tunnels. Every now and then, there'd be a screech that could only come from a wailing tailed beast and they had to stop for a while to clear the disorientation. But despite all that, they ran into no obvious opposition. They either hadn't anticipated anyone would follow through the sewers, or they didn't know that they were being followed by people other than Naruto. In either case, all three were thankful for the unimpeded walk.

"Why the blue light?" Kurotsuchi said, wincing a little bit when she realized her voice was loud enough to echo. "Hurts my eyes," she said quieter.

"We're in a tunnel with a high amount of methane," Temari whispered back. "If we use fire, we run the risk of starting an explosion."

"Can we at least change the-"

"Wait," Mei said suddenly, holding her hand up.

Before they could ask why, the blue light illuminated the cobblestone, showcasing a human-like puppet impaled to the wall through the heart with its own arm. Its other jointed appendages were ripped out as well and its jaw hung loosely with only one joint attached. Despite the fact that it wasn't a human, it brought forward the notion of a grisly scene. One that made Temari's and Kurotsuchi's stomachs turn.

Kurotsuchi bit the inside of her lip. That wasn't just violence. That was hatred. Hatred in its most pure, unadulterated form.

Looking around more, there were signs of a more substantive battle. Puppet parts littered the scene along with scorched remains and huge rends in the rock. Fecal matter had been splashed up and over the sewage river in more than one place.

"These exploded, right?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"Yes," Mei answered back, eyes narrowed.

"So why didn't the whole sewer explode with it?"

"I can't image they're a sure thing with every spark," Temari said, trying to twist logic in her favor. "There would be explosions every day if that were the case."

"Or," Mei said. "We can assume something else having to do with his nature right now." She shook her head. "We move on. Don't let your guard down."

As they walked on, the sounds started sounding more… real, for lack of a better term. The echoing had dulled the sounds and made them seem too far off to be real. Now that there were real clanks and real rattles, their hearts started to turn to stone and their nerves combusted. They were getting ready for battle.

All at once, Mei's eyes widened and her mouth filled to the brim of some sort of liquid. A jet of viscous sludge hit the wall in front of them and traveled to the nearest corner, solidifying almost instantly and sectioning off a section of the sewers.

There was an impact against the newly made barrier that made dust fall from the ceiling and the surrounding walls crack and fall apart. A grunt of pain and a frustration soon followed. A few moments of silence endured before a roaring boom slammed into Mei's barrier and destroyed it, sending debris and chunks of rock outwards.

"Shit," Mei ground out, putting her hands out in front of her and at the ready to perform jutsu as they may be required. Temari and Kurotsuchi followed suit, brandishing their own weapons as they waited for what would happen next.

The thing that Naruto was transformed into clambered out of his new hole and onto the floor, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process. His exoskeleton had come up to cover his arms and lower face and his wings were more fully formed. His eyes, though compound they may be, were set in a righteous look of hatred.

The two lesser experienced shinobi felt their hearts quake at the intimidating aura he put out. It was like they might be washed away by the mightiness of his emotions, like sand would to a wave. It made them want to either attack it, or flee from it. It was limiting their cognitive thought down to the most simple choices they could make.

Kurotsuchi took a half step forward, warcry right behind her lips, but was smacked back in the chest by Mei, who was still staring at Naruto with an intensity almost impossible for a normal human. Kurotsuchi wanted to question her, but her proclamation died on her lips. It was because Naruto had only looked their way for half a second before shambling forward into a run right past them.

"He's dangerous," Mei said, letting a breath out. "But he's not focused on us. For now, we follow him and see what his objective is."

Kurotsuchi couldn't even speak. She could only nod. She wiped her forehead on her sleeve, drenching it with sweat. She looked down at herself and realized most of her upper body was drenched with it. And it wasn't because she was in a stifling sewer, no, it was because of the fear. That feeling made her want to hurl. It made her want to go home and forget everything she saw.

But then Mei ran after Naruto and Temari started pursuit soon after, so she didn't really have much of a choice in the matter.

00000000

Yugito was confused.

As blue flames licked at her skin and her body started to become more and more catlike, she could more and more feel the presence of Naruto, but she couldn't figure out where he was. That malicious sense of hatred was like a blanket on the village and pinpointing the source was nigh on impossible, especially considering her lack of experience in sensing chakra. The only thing she could figure out was that he was always moving, but any more than that was beyond her.

She shook her head and reconcentrated her efforts. Perhaps only Fu or her would be able to stop him the way he was like now and all the other sensors she had approached to help her always got overwhelmed by the hatred.

But it was strange. If he was always moving, she should have heard at least small tales of where he was by all the shinobi rushing around.

How could he move and not be seen? If he wasn't on the ground or above it, what did that leave?

Yugito opened her eyes in realization.

00000000

Tobi bled from the wall near the ten fingered monument. He'd been tracking the artful duo and knew that they were being followed by a desperate Jinchuuriki who would do everything he could to meddle in his plans. They weren't going to get the prerequisite three days to drain the one tail from the kazekage. They'd only been at it for about thirty minutes.

The fact that there was an unprecedented nationwide alliance between all superpowers was bad enough. They were all getting along with each other was the bad part.

Their plans were going to have to get kicked up a notch. Surely, Madara would not mind if he borrowed a little bit of power to make the transferal slightly more expedient. And even if he did, well, it's no skin off his back.

00000000

The three trepid followers took after Naruto's trail of destruction as carefully as they could as quickly as they could. As he progressed further and further into the sewers, it became clear that although his mind had become savaged by the chakra, that he still had a sort of tactical sense to his movements and actions. He could think several moves ahead of the puppets and use his exoskeleton to cover the explosions, rendering them inert. They didn't even have to do anything as he dismantled the traps and took care of the attackers all while maintaining a consistent fast speed.

The cobblestone walls soon became more and more rugged and pipes stopped showing up. It became clear to Mei that the sewers had first started out from a natural formation, meaning that as they progressed, they got further and further away from the village proper and more and more into unknown, unpredictable territory.

"How long has it been?" Temari asked, breaking the verbal silence.

Mei didn't answer. She didn't know. It could have been five minutes or five hours for all she knew. Despite the fact that she was putting up a calm façade, that's all it was in the end, a façade. Most of her mental faculties were focused on following Naruto without coming within a certain range of him.

As they continued on, he became not only more angry, if that were even possible, but also more… desperate. He slipped up every now and then, letting puppets near him and even let a few cuts on his body. They healed up right away, but it was the fact that they even got there in the first place that was the worrying part.

Any stragglers that were left behind were swiftly destroyed by the three, letting loose some much needed stress and affirming their abilities to themselves, if not anyone else.

And then they stopped.

It was a rock unlike others blocking the path forward, with a seal of great complexity inscribed on the surface. Naruto stopped there, not even trying to break it open. His chest was heaving and there was steam coming off his body. The exoskeleton had come up even further on his body, covering his chest and abdomen. He was going to be a bug soon enough. Mei just hoped she was enough of a challenge to wear him down when worse came to worse.

He looked at his hand the way an ape would look at a rock and wonder what could be done with it. He stared and stared and finally, it began to morph. The fingers converged all into one and the wrist became detached. The purpose for this became clear enough when the entire hand started spinning around like a drill so fast that it was causing a disturbance in the air that even Mei could feel, standing a fair bit off.

Without warning, he ran forward and thrust his hand at the hard surface, lighting up the sealing array that encircled the entire rock. His purple hand soon gained a yellow orange glow from all the heat he generated. Mei guessed that it was hot enough to melt the nerves off the skin of her hand if she dared touch it.

"It's not enough," Temari said.

"He just needs a little bit of purchase," Kurotsuchi quickly added. "Once he's in even a little, he's in."

"You're not worried about the right things," Mei said. "What we really need to worry about is what's behind the door."

The two girls stared at the monolith as realization came to them. "The puppet masters,"  
Temari muttered.

"Well," Kurotsuchi said, huffing out a few puffs of laughter. "At least we have a Jinchuuriki on our side."

"Yes, but what are they still doing here? What was their objective? Why is this happening?"

A crack emanated from the wall Naruto was drilling into. The seals cracked apart and unraveled, leaving a completely normal rock to the mercy of Naruto's drilling hand.

"We're going to find out soon," Temari said, unfolding her fan. "Look sharp."

Mei smiled. "I always do."

Naruto drilled forward until the entire rock cracked in half down the middle. Shoving them to the side, he rushed forward into the room, followed quickly by the other three.

It was a large, spacious room, capable of filling up a small village worth of people. In the middle was a giant humanoid statue with two hands thrust up through the ground. On the two thumbs were a couple of hooded figures sitting down in a relaxed position.

But Temari didn't see any of that and neither did Naruto. The two of them just saw the corpse laying a pile on the ground right in front of the statue.

It was Gaara.

He was dead.

Nothing happened for a long time, then Naruto split the room with a roar of pain and suffering and sadness.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Deidara would be hard pressed to tell anyone if there was anything that excited him more, or on the same level as, explosions. Seeing the culmination of months of hard work and planning extend across the canvas of the world in the span of a few seconds sent shivers up his spine every single time he went through with it. It always had. Ever since he was a kid, he was this way. It's what gave him an edge over everyone else in the explosion squad. It's what made him desire to steal the sacred forbidden art of imbuing clay with explosive power. It's what made him do it.

But now, there might be a worthy contender to his love. The hatred in the air was palpable. Quite literally. It assaulted his skin in waves like heat from a fire would, but this fire did not singe his eyebrows or dry his skin. No, this fire made him feel something he hadn't felt in a very long time.

It made him feel fear.

And that, more than anything else, sent shivers up his spine in a most pleasurable way. Such was the greatness of feeling that he wanted it to stay there forever. That questioning of his character by himself was such a wondrous sensation that he would never be able to articulate the hows, whens, and whys of it.

"Deidara!"

The blond man snapped out of his reverie at the snap from his partner. He blinked once and looked down at the source of the palpable hate, that wondrous fire. Covered in bug exoskeleton, but male. The seven tails was female.

Who was that?

The mad bomber smirked to himself and muttered "Doesn't really matter," before clasping his hands together and screaming "KATSU!"

BOOOOOOM!

As there was a conference of the strongest shinobi in the world at the moment, it didn't do either of them very much good to stick around after killing one of them. Even if they all turned on each other and pandemonium broke out, neither of them could risk getting caught up in it. Which is why the organization decided to scuttle that particular hideout and also why Deidara stuck his clay on the support pillars.

The two of them hopped onto the top of the statue where a disturbance in the air materialized and two hands came out of them to grab onto both their shoulders.

"Should we be questioning this?" Deidara asked.

"Count your blessings while you still can," Sasori ground out.

Deidara smirked. "Y-"

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the purple haze that materialized out of nowhere and vanished along with him. Sasori was only barely able to blink in the time that he vanished. He might have leapt up into action, but he was hit in the chest by a bullet of air and rocketed back across the cavern.

His back cracked apart the wall and got partially stuck in there. Turning to his left, he saw the seven tails in human form ripping his partner's guts out and screaming at the top of his lungs while he did so. Sasori was glad he didn't have human ears anymore, else he might have gone deaf from the loudness.

Curling his appendages forward like a pill bug would, Sasori slammed them all back as hard as he could and dislodged himself from the rock wall, falling to the ground. He hit the ground with the litheness of a cat and the creepiness of a spider, but he didn't have even a moment's rest to get his bearings. As soon as his feet and hands touched the ground, his chin was clubbed to the side by a giant war fan, held by the one tails' sister. There were tears in her eyes, but they were wide open and full of fury.

She hit him again in the head, this time caving in one of his eyes, before he whipped his bone tail around to pierce her chest. Without even a hint of hesitation, she deflected the blow with the fan, twirled around and pushed the blunt end into the bridge of his nose, fracturing the hard wood beyond repair.

Getting tired of this fight and very aware of the fact that the ceiling was starting to fall apart, Sasori jumped away and launched volley after volley of senbon at the girl, but each and every one of them missed their mark, clattering to the ground or getting stuck in hard rock. The girl held her fan at her side and glared at him. The look on her face was crazed. Equal parts hatred and sadness and despondency and vindictiveness.

She wanted him dead. No, not because it was her duty to kill, not because she was ordered to do so. It would be a killing of hatred. A killing of no remorse.

If it was a fan user, then he was at a disadvantage trying to kill her from a distance. He planted his feet against the wall in preparation to rocket to her and end her life, but there was an explosion from far up on the wall that unsteadied his feet. A smoking purple mass of exoskeletal material fell from the sky and landed elbow first on his back, cracking his outer shell's back and destroying much of the interior.

His partner swooped in from above and carpet bombed the area, drawing the ire of the seven tails and the sister of the one tails in the process.

"Time to go!" Deidara shouted as he darted around the falling boulder sized chunks of ceiling.

Sasori grabbed the seven tails' legs and rolled around like an alligator, entangling the creature in a web of his extending limbs, hoping that would be enough to restrain it. He then set the joints into a locked position and abandoned the outer shell, hugging the wall they were against like his life depended on it.

"Couldn't agree more," Sasori said just loud enough for Deidara to hear.

The seven tails was struggling against the puppet's limbs and had already freed one of its arms, crunching apart the hard wood like a toddler would to Styrofoam. The girl howled at Deidara and sent shot after shot of pressurized air at him. They were fast and they were accurate. The only reason he hadn't been destroyed by one was probably due in part to the falling rubble.

Luckily for them, the Mizukage intervened by grabbing a hold of the girl and preventing her from moving while the raven haired girl from hidden rock came to the side of the seven tails and started hacking away at its bonds to try and help him escape.

"We have to go!" Mei shouted into Temari's ear over the din of the room collapsing. Not listening to her response, she hoisted Temari up and started running to the exit, which was already getting clogged with rubble.

"NO!" Temari shouted with all her might, fighting against the woman's arms in a desperate attempt to obtain her revenge. "THEY HAVE TO DIE! GAAARRAAA!"

Mei got ready to dissolve what was left of the door to allow them through, but was knocked forward by a sonic boom. She had to let go of Temari to make sure she didn't fall face first into sharp rocks and turned around with wide eyes. There was a small trail of smoke going upwards that indicated where Naruto had been. Where the ceiling had been, there was only a halo of rocks flying up and floating in the air hugging the trail Naruto made. It took Mei a second to realize that Naruto had shot upwards with such velocity that he destroyed the ceiling completely and forced the entirety of its chunks upwards.

And what comes up…

"HEY!"

Mei looked down to see Kurotsuchi racing towards them with all the speed she had in her, occasionally body flickering her way towards them as she did so. The older woman turned around and saw that her way out was completely full of rocks. Melting her way through would take too long. She was almost certain to be crushed by the debris.

Thinking quickly and acting quicker, Mei scooped Temari back up in her arms and started running towards Kurotsuchi with equal speed. She soon had to dodge the smaller rocks that began falling first, then she stumbled over rocks she could have leapt over normally because of the dust and small pebbles descending over them. To her side, one of the giant boulders hit the ground, splintering apart the rocks it fell on and turning them into impromptu fragmentation grenades. Slivers of stone shot past her, scoring her across the face a few times and more critically, her knee.

She gasped in pain and stumbled over. Temari fell down, gasping for air in the dusty environment, and looped one of Mei's arms around her shoulder, then pressed on. More giants fell around them. It was like they were in a battlefield, reacting to explosions occurring without any idea where they were coming from and no idea when or where the next one would fall. They had no idea how long they were to live.

 **"** **Earth Style: Rock Dome"**

And then, along with not being able to breathe, they weren't able to see either. All light was cut off from them and the sound was muffled like they were underwater. For the most part, the only thing they could hear was their own haggard breathing.

Mei managed to whisper something under her breath and that same ephemeral light that guided them through the sewers flickered back in place, showing that they were in a small enclosure barely tall enough to stand up in. Kurotsuchi was above them, literally shouldering the structure that covered them from the falling debris with a red face that had veins popping, showing the weight she must have been under. It appeared that she weakened in bits and pulses, her knees falling slightly every second or so with a pained gasp every time. Mei stood up on her one good leg and stuck her back to the ceiling too. Just like that, everything stabilized. The world still vibrated every now and then, but Mei held up their cover almost effortlessly.

Kurotsuchi fell to her hands and knees, gasping for breath. She looked up eventually and saw that Temari had nearly curled up into a ball, tears streaming from her face and wetting her knees. They were still wide open and angry, but it looked like she had regained control of her actions.

"You did good, Kurotsuchi," Mei said in an authoritarian, yet gentle voice. "If it weren't for you, all three of us would be dead."

The raven haired girl in question sat up and leaned against a rock, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. "Yeah, well… you know."

Seeing that that was the most she was getting out of Kurotsuchi, Mei turned her gaze to Temari. Her eyes were sad and sympathetic, a stark contrast to Temari's own. "I understand that you're in pain right now. Losing the ones closest to you is one of the worst things a person could go through. But unless you want to die as well, you need to get your head in the game. For all intents and purposes, we're at war right now and if we want to get out unscathed, we're going to have to work together."

Temari looked up to glare at the struggling woman and sighed, changing position until she was on her knees. For a few seconds, she didn't say or do anything. Only the sounds of rocks falling and changing position was heard outside. She looked down at Mei's feet and said without so much as a tremble in her voice "What's the plan?"

It wasn't long before the trembling stopped and a near silence reigned over them. All of their ears rung in that silence, so used to the loud explosions of only a few seconds ago. Mei sighed and glanced up. "We don't know how much rubble we're under, but let's assume a lot. I can melt my way up and out, but that could take a while. Does anybody have anything useful?"

"I can make quicklime," Kurotsuchi offered. "And then turn that quicklime into cement. And I'm good with a sword and can make simple earth barriers and domes. That's it."

Temari glanced at her, brain whirring at top speed. "How in tune are you with your element?"

"Earth, fire, or lava?"

"Earth."

She shrugged. "I don't know, a little bit. I kinda focused on lava."

"Would you be able to sense what's under us right now?"

Kurotsuchi scrunched her brow together. "Not specifically. I don't think excavating for gold is really on the timetable right now…"

Temari blinked and shook her head slightly. "No, no, would you be able to sense if there were any caverns or tunnels?"

"Yeah, easy."

Mei narrowed her eyes. "The cave system."

Temari nodded. "That's what I was thinking. If the sewers were originally made from natural caves, then chances are, there are more crisscrossing under us right now."

Kurotsuchi got to her hands and knees with a pained grunt and said "Worth a shot," then planted her palms on the hard stone and closed her eyes. They shot right back open almost immediately with surprise. "We are… right on top of one. Can't be more than fifteen feet under us."

"Do you know if it leads back to the sewers?" Temari asked.

"Goes in the general direction. We can always reexcavate if have to."

"If that's the case," Mei said. "This shouldn't take much longer than a few seconds. Could you hold the dome up for a little longer?"

Kurotsuchi got to her feet. Her knees were shaky at first, but they steadied a few seconds later when she put her shoulders up against Mei's. "Call it."

Mei took a deep breath. "NOW!"

00000000

Yugito fell on the ground in a roll, already throwing kunai at the few puppets still chasing her. Her fire attacks had little efficacy other than stripping them of their 'skin' in some places, showing off their internal workings. They were unlike any enemy she had seen or fought before. The only thing she could liken them to would be to elemental golems with far greater tactical minds and even more suicidal zeal. They were fearsome alone and downright intimidating in groups.

Nothing she couldn't take care of, however.

They all dodged or parried away the kunai and continued running at her. She stood in place, smiling at them and waiting for their imminent arrival. Just as the first one jumped at her, something caught its leg and it tripped into the air, suspended for a few tense moments before getting shredded to medium sized chunks, small lines glinting off the sun was the only sign of the wire she had laid there with her kunai.

The other two puppets were already in the air by the time the first one got shredded apart, so they too shared its fate, albeit in larger chunks. A desiccated head rolled its way to her, jaw hanging open with a too realistic tongue lolling out. Its eyes still worked and were staring at her intently. Yugito felt her nose curl up into a snarl. It had to be one of the most distasteful things she had ever seen. It might have even sent shivers up her spine if she weren't largely desensitized to it by then.

She took a deep breath looked at the stone monuments in the distance. There was a stream of civilians up to it with shinobi circling around and eyeing for danger. From what she could tell, the danger was largely passed, but she couldn't knock them for wanting to be safe.

Yugito turned on her heel and started walking forward into the burnt out remains of the shopping district. Her chakra sensing wasn't the best, but she knew she could sense-

"DUCK!"

Acting on pure instinct, Yugito's knees buckled and she pitched forward, catching herself with her hands. There was a whizz of air that tickled her back and a solid thunk from behind her. Scrambling, she launched herself forward and landed turning around, elongating her nails as she did so. What she saw was the upper torso and attached legs of a puppet standing at a still with a long purple javelin sticking out of its chest, clogging up the machinery inside. It fell to the side and didn't even explode.

Breathing heavily, Yugito turned around to see Fu, holding onto a beam for support with one arm and the other one hanging almost uselessly at her side. Her face was clammy and her breathing irregular. Yugito wouldn't have been surprised if a strong breeze could push the girl over.

As it was, Yugito ran forward and supported Fu by draping her useless arm over her shoulder. It was at that moment that she realized just how light Fu was. And she had always been a very solid girl. Despite her flitty and light-hearted take to most things in life, she always had a sort of dynamism to her that made Yugito wonder if she could win against the girl in a fight. Now, it was like she was wasting away.

"What happened?" Yugito asked.

Fu blinked a few times and winced as she was being sat down. "Uahrm… We got attacked, Naruto and I and… Gaara. Naruto got hurt. Kurama wouldn't heal him. I gave him some of Chomei's. He took more than he should have and lost control. The other three showed up and followed him into that hole over there. It seemed like he got a bead on the akatsuki guys."

Yugito's head was swimming with questions, but she settled on the one she thought was best. "And what about you? Are you okay?"

Fu gulped and looked up to the sky. "I don't know. Chomei's chakra isn't coming back fast enough. And I had to help out a little with the puppets. I… I want to help," Fu said helplessly.

Yugito smiled a little bit and grabbed her shoulder. "But you need rest."

Fu huffed and looked down. "I hate that so much. I hate being useless."

"I do too. But right now, you'll only get in the way if you try to help."

A small, almost gurgled chuckled came from Fu's mouth. "Saved your ass though."

Yugito almost laughed at the girl. How she could find the energy to make humor, Yugito would never know. "Careful, I still don't know you that well," she said, half joking.

Though pained, Fu's eyes were expressive and jovial and just knew more than she did. "You know me well enough… Enough to look for me," she emphasized the last sentence with a wide open smile, much like a certain blonde she had come to know.

Yugito sat down as well. Perhaps it wasn't the time for a heart to heart and it wasn't even her intention to begin one, but she sat down anyways. Because, in truth, being around and talking to the other five members of the contract was some of the most carefree time she had ever had in her life. In youth, she was kept at an arm's length and was almost beginning to be revered in adulthood. There hadn't ever been a buffer where she could laugh with people. At least not for any extended period of time. They all had their problems but they all… they all tried their best.

That was the thing that stood out to her above all else, it was the fact that they all did their best. And it had only been a few days. It was hard not to be sucked into their frame of thought and feelings. They were so infectious with their happiness that she was starting to let her guard down around them.

"Well, if you die, then the whole treaty is over," Yugito said, looking off at the charred buildings.

"And I thought you were warming up to me," Fu said, tilting her head to Yugito.

"Warming is a strong word."

"You know you love us."

Yugito bit back a smile and laid her head back. There weren't any hostilities, the air was peaceful. It was nice. "We should probably start looking for the wonder trio, huh?"

Fu nodded. "By the way, you're probably going to have to subdue Naruto."

Yugito's brow crossed. "Huh?"

Her question was interrupted by the sudden eruption that came from behind them. Yugito was the first to turn around and saw that some ways away from the monument was a growing cone of rock and dirt fanning out from a focal point and at the very top was a purple dot growing larger and larger. It wasn't long before she could make out more of it. Wings and fangs and exoskeleton and fur and compound eyes and slit eyes and a horn and arms and…

All the tailed beasts had a sort of elegance to them. A sort of nature that they adhered to. Many would dispute to say that they were all beautiful, but at least they all had a symmetry to them. At least you could tell what it was.

But this… no, this was a monster, plain and simple. A beast from myth and legend. A combination of the chakras of the seven tailed beetle and the nine tailed fox. Just looking at it made her stomach drop. She couldn't imagine what a civilian must feel if they looked at such a beast. Or really, anyone other than her.

"Oh, no," Fu whispered. "I think… it might be too late."

"What's going on?" Yugito harshly asked, worry creeping into her throat.

"I… told you. He took Chomei's chakra and it looks like he needed to be stronger for… whatever reason. We…" she tried to get up, but failed. "You… have to stop him."

'Mata…?'

 **"** **He looks to be acting and reacting with no thought. Without the ability to reason or think tactfully, I'm sure we can subjugate him."**

Yugito couldn't help but stare at the wretched horror. It had begun to move and attack. Explosions began to litter its body which only seemed to enrage it more.

'How sure?'

00000000

As they pressed on, Mei could tell that Temari was thinking about something. She rarely responded to stimuli. Her eyes were unfocused. And whenever she did reply, it was clipped and offbeat. Mei had seen shell-shocked soldiers before and Temari wasn't fitting the bill. She wasn't distracted by the death of her brother, no, she was thinking something else.

"Okay," Kurotsuchi said, hand to the walls and eyes closed out of concentration. "We burrow up here and we should be in the sewers. After that, it's smooth sailing to the surface."

Mei glanced at Temari and sighed inwardly. Whatever she was planning, Mei didn't think she'd be able to stop her. Her hurt leg and the amount of chakra she had expended during the main fight, keeping track of Naruto, and making sure Kurotsuchi and Temari survived was starting to take a toll on her. "How far up?" she asked.

"Three or four feet, whereabouts."

Sidestepping Kurotsuchi and Temari, Mei put both her palms to the low ceiling and aimed her breath in the space between her thumbs. Taking a deep breath and molding her chakra, Mei expelled a stream of corrosive gas that instantly melted the rock, causing it to drip down in great amounts. What might have horribly burned the common person had no effect on her. Kurotsuchi and Temari, however, would have to take great pains not to touch the edges, lest they burn their hands off.

"Hey, wait!" was the only thing Mei heard before she was shoved aside roughly and with no warning. She might have righted herself properly had her wounded knee not gotten in the way. As it was, she fell over inelegantly and righted just in time to see Temari's legs disappear up the hole and the padding of footsteps leading off into the sewers. Drawing her attention downward, Mei saw that Kurotsuchi got much the same treatment as her.

Kurotsuchi was the first one up and offered Mei a helping hand. "What was that about?" she asked, dusting herself off. "It's not like there's anything dangerous in the tunnels anymore, right?"

Mei's brain was whirring, trying to come up with a reason why Temari would want to go up so suddenly that she would shove both of them out of the way to do so. What could it have been?

"Close the hole," Mei said suddenly, eyes wide open with first realization, then terror.

Kurotsuchi blinked. "Wha-"

"USE YOUR QUICKLIME, NOW!" Mei shouted, prepping a water jutsu as she spoke.

The raven haired girl's mouth clacked shut as she rapidly went through the handseals for her jutsu. Within fractions of a second, there was a ready-to-go cement mix pouring from her mouth and mixing with the water coming from Mei's own. It rapidly solidified, creating a plug in the hole. Once that was done, Mei knelt down to rest. Her vision was getting blurry from the chakra exhaustion and pain.

There was a hand on her shoulder and suddenly she was face to face with Kurotsuchi. "What's going on?" she asked, a tremor of fear in her voice. "Why did we do that? What's Temari doing?"

Mei fell over so that her back was supported by the wall. "She's doing something only she can do, I would suppose. If not, then I guess I just made a fool of myself."

Kurotsuchi grabbed the bridge of her nose. "What, exactly, are you talking about?"

A sigh belted from the Terumi's lips. "What's dangerous about the sewers?"

Kurotsuchi fell opposite her with a harrumph. "I don't know, it stinks."

"Why does it stink?"

"Because it's full of shit."

"And what does shit produce when left to ferment for long periods of time? Why did we have to be careful not to set off any sparks while we chased after Naruto?"

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened. "She's not gonna… but that'll destroy Konoha!"

Mei shrugged. "Methane is a gas, you know, air. And she's an expert of wind jutsu. I'm assuming she'll try to redirect it in a way that would kill the akatsuki members. Whether that will or will not be effective or have unintended consequences on the city at large will be anyone's guess."

"But… that's…"

"Insane? She just lost her brother, mind you. I'm not sure I can blame her for the insanity that crept in."

"Then… we should have gone after her! We should have stopped her! She could die! She probably is going to die!"

Mei shook her head. "Neither of us have the energy. All that would have done would have been to trap us in the explosion as well."

Kurotsuchi shook her head. "Then what are we supposed to d-"

She was silenced by the earthquake-like tremor that shook the tunnel they were in along with a heavy whoosh of air going above their heads.

"We're supposed to have faith," Mei finally said after the rumbling stopped and silence reigned again.

00000000

Yugito didn't know what the people down below might have been thinking when they saw her, engulfed in flames and at half the size of what Matatabi is capable of leap headlong into the air behind the monument and grab ahold of the monster that Naruto was inside of. Surely, they were losing their minds out of confusion and fear. That was truly the only acceptable option. Because if they were any less, where did that leave her? In truth, going up against that monster left her with a feeling she had all but forgotten.

It was the feeling of being outclassed. Like a child going up against an adult.

But she did it anyway.

Why?

She was still figuring that one out.

A particularly large explosion rocketed his back at the same time she grabbed a hold of his legs and bathed his stomach in flames. The double attack hindered his ability to fly and grounded him almost immediately. That victory was short lived as he completely disregarded her and turned his attention to the sky. His misshapen mandibles opened and a dull black and red orb started to come into being. Thankfully, it didn't get very large due to the huge rush of water that hit it directly in the middle and pushed it back into its gullet.

Yugito looked upwards as well and saw that the two akatsuki members were floating around on a giant white bird. The one with red hair held its arm out, which had turned into a sort of water cannon. While the one with red hair had a look of indifference, the blond one next to him was smiling like a child on a roller coaster.

She was surrounded by monsters.

And if this point was not driven in hard enough to her by then, it would be as soon as the monster on the ground next to her opened its gaping jaw and vomited out lasers that created whirlpools of the clouds above them. They were largely inaccurate, but one managed to clip the bird that both of them were on and set it careening down.

Yugito felt hope in her heart that the monster wasn't feeling any animosity to her and that it was still Naruto inside, until one of its tails wrapped around her body and flung her away at random. It was such a sudden change of being that Yugito wondered what was happening while it was happening. She didn't even know she was in the air until she hit the ground.

 **"** **Kitten!"**

'I'm alright,' Yugito thought back, scrambling to her legs and getting a feel for her surroundings. All around her was scorched and gouged earth of what might have very recently been a nice little forest. Trees were uprooted and burnt into unrecognizable husks, there were no animal calls, all was silent.

It was a dead place.

Not too far away, Naruto was still fighting the akatsuki members with a zeal that only a beast could achieve and she was still wondering where she was.

 **"** **Are you so unaware? You were here not days ago. This place is what's left of yours and Naruto's little squabble."**

Yugito blearily looked around. 'Really? But… it's so…"

 **"** **Yes, well, I'm sure you're aware of how destructive the battle between Jinchuuriki can be."**

But this felt different. This felt more… wrong? Why did it feel wrong? Was it because it used to be a peaceful, serene place. Was it because it was something that belonged to her? Was it because it reminded her of her shame? Was it because it reminded her of Naruto?

Naruto.

She shook her head. What was wrong with her? Why was the world spinning? Why did she feel the urge to puke, but not know how to? Why was she angry?

 **"** **GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!"** Matatabi screamed in her head. **"** **YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH WORSE! WHY ARE YOU LOSING CONTROL NOW?!"**

It appeared that the mental screaming was enough to jostle Yugito's brain back into activity, as she righted herself and started running on all fours to Naruto. 'I… What's wrong with me?'

Matatabi knew, of course, why Yugito was starting to lose control so early. Why the darkness in her heart was widening?

It was because her chakra latched onto feelings other than rage. Yugito was losing herself to something almost unknown to her. She was starting to be lose to despair. Despair that Naruto might die.

 **'** **Oh, you poor girl.'**

00000000

Naruto stood in front of giant iron bars holding back the might of one of the greatest beings in the entire world, the nine-tailed fox. A single swish of its tails could topple a mountain or create a tsunami. Its roar could petrify the hearts of civilians. An impossible existence.

And yet, why did it look so sad?

Kurama's breathing was irregular and his eyes shaking. In truth, he didn't mean to take Chomei's chakra. It just sort of… happened. He didn't… He had always imagined that when he took control of the boy's darkness that he would burst free to the world, unshackled and able to do all that he wanted. The lives of humans were of no consequence to him. They were worthless and without meaning.

"Hey… why do you look so sad?"

Kurama got up and paced around. He didn't like it. He didn't like it even a little bit. Was it doubt? Was it fear? Was it disgust? He had wanted freedom for so long, but he didn't want this.

"Hey… why do you look so sad?"

At every turn, his existence had been denied. By his creator, who died. By his sons, who failed. By humanity, who feared everything and tried to warp everything they feared to their own sensibilities. One by one, even his siblings left him. And he was alone. And he liked being alone.

And then one human found him, fought him, chased him, bound him in chains, and forced his actions. And now… he was only hatred. And hatred couldn't look sad.

"Hey… why do you look so sad?"

Kurama closed his eyes in disgust and averted his head. In front of him, separated by the bars, was Naruto. Except it wasn't him. Chomei's chakra had latched onto him and his own chakra and had distorted not only the boy's form, but also his mind. He was left speaking that one last sentence over and over again, in an endless loop. No amount of screaming or threats cowed the boy. Nothing he could do even slowed him down. He might even be broken beyond repair.

Why did he feel bad about that?

"Hey… why do you look so sad?"

Kurama put his hands to his ears to block out the noise. It haunted him. It had been for a while. It was the last thing Naruto said before his mind had been completely taken by the chakra. It was like… a growth of sorts. A mass of conglomerated chakra that grew on his stomach and rapidly overtook his entire body. At the current, he was a congealed blob of extraneous exoskeletal bodies and materials, like something from a nightmare. The only thing that peaked out at the top was his head, looking eternally forlornly at the fox.

"Hey… why do you-"

 **"** **IT'S BECAUSE I AM! OKAY? ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? YOU CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE! WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE REJECTED AT EVERY CORNER! TO BE SEEN AS SOMETHING THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST! SOMETHING THAT CAN ONLY BE USED BY OTHERS! NOT EVEN A THINKING THING! JUST A TOOL! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MY PAIN! WHY DO I LOOK SAD? IT'S BECAUSE I AM!"**

His sudden outburst shocked even himself. It even silenced the infernal repetitious speak of the boy. His eyes were now closed and the growth had stopped growing. Somewhere, on the fringes of his awareness, he could sense explosions and blue fire in the physical world, but he cared not for the physical world. He was too focused on the boy to understand anything else.

The eyes opened again, showing disgusting compound eyes, like that of a fly's. But they still saw. They could still understand the world around them. And they were looking straight at Kurama in the eyes. "You're wrong. I do understand your pain."

And then the growth consumed the boy entirely. Like he had held out for long enough to deliver that one single sentence and that as soon as that happened, all energy had left him.

And Kurama was alone again, sitting in the complete and utter silence. There was no dripping. Not even the water flowed. His ears were assaulted by the relentless pounding of that infernal silence.

 **"** **I think I preferred it when you were talking."**

00000000

"WE'RE NOT DOING ENOUGH DAMAGE!"

"AND WHO'S FAULT IS THAT?"

Tsunade's eyes were set and focused. She knew what she had to do and if she let any doubt show on her face, it would only demoralize those around her. Not that they could be easily demoralized. All the strongest shinobi from all their respective nations were taking part in subjugating Naruto. Well, all except Mei. No one knew what happened to her.

Jiraiya was next to her, beginning to lose his cool and launching jutsu after jutsu at the clay dragon circling above them. Subjugating Naruto was all well and good, but they also had to keep an eye on Akatsuki.

The best thing she could compare the situation she was in was when three shinobi nations squared off against each other on the battle field. Everyone had to look out for their own while doing damage to two fronts. It was a rare situation, granted, but not unheard of. And she, unfortunately, found herself at the commanding role.

Yugito was at full beast mode and was engaging Naruto by the front, but even at her greatest size, he dwarfed her the way a hound would a kitten. Zipping around his head was the Raikage and the Tsuchikage, trying to do damage without killing the boy inside. Some of the high ranking Konoha shinobi were running around his legs, doing interference, almost completely confused as to the situation at hand.

"Nothing's hitting them!" Jiraiya shouted. He and she alone were 'squaring off' against the akatsuki, if it could even be called that.

"I can help!"

The two Sannin turned around to see Shibuki running towards them, arms encased with water swords. Though his face showed nervousness, his hands did not shake in the slightest. "Too dangerous," Jiraiya said roughly, turning around to try some more.

Not taking 'no' for an answer, Shibuki, grabbed his elbow and said "If you can get me up there, I can ground them."

Jiraiya and Tsunade shared a look. Despite being from a minor nation, he was still the leader, the strongest of his region.

But was he strong enough against the akatsuki?

Jiraiya growled and did a few handseals before slapping his throat. A sealing array spread out on his neck and he turned around to see Shibuki. "Keep a hold of yourself," was the only warning before the bear of a man vomited out a giant toad's tongue that wrapped around the lesser man's chest.

Shibuki couldn't say anything before being thrown almost haphazardly in the general direction of the clay bird.

"You could have tried something a little bit more conventional," Tsunade muttered.

"They would have seen the conventional a mile away. This way, we have the element of surprise."

Tsunade still had reservations, but she kept her tongue bitten for the time being.

Shibuki landed on the dragon's stomach by stabbing his swords through them. Using them, he started climbing the beast almost like a spider and hopped to the dragon's wing, severing it at the base before Deidara or Sasori even knew what was happening. The blond artist's eyes went wide with anger before making a sign with his hands. "KATSU!"

The wing exploded next to them, but he was already gone and they were about to dive back into the fold. "How many more puppets do you have?!" Deidara shouted, trying to get the dragon to regrow its wing desperately.

"Two," Sasori answered.

"Great, we have three puppets then," Deidara said sarcastically.

"I was counting myself," Sasori said dryly, looking to the ground for a good jump-off point.

"Well, ain't that peachy, yeah?"

For the briefest of seconds, the battlefield went silent. Everybody stopped throwing jutsus. Naruto paused and so did Yugito. Rather than spiraling through the air, Deidara and Sasori almost felt like they were gliding through a single frame of a picture, it was so still.

Deidara looked to Sasori. "Wha-"

And then the ground erupted in flames and explosions. Deidara might have even appreciated the sight had the flames not risen up and disintegrated him instantly, leaving not even the appreciation for such a momentous explosion behind.

The fire was somehow self-directed and sought after Naruto and the akatsuki only. All the leaf and foreign shinobi were relatively untouched by the fire that came from the earth endlessly like water flowing from a tipped bucket.

It assaulted Naruto over and over and nothing he could would allow him to get away. It ate at his joints, his wings, his eyes, his everything. Any attempts he had at swiping it away only let the onslaught into him. He opened his mouth to roar, but the fire went into him and scorched everything inside. It ate and ate and ate like a gluttonous monster.

Soon, the fire came into full being and at the very top was the head, pointed like a bird's and with eyes that spoke of pain. It was like a fiery phoenix rising forlornly from the earth.

Only when Naruto stopped moving did the phoenix's head dive down and sever its neck into two clean pieces. It fell to the ground with a thunderous boom, shaking the ground and everyone in the general vicinity.

The phoenix rose to the sky and let out a scream of unbridled emotion. Pain and sorrow, hatred and loathing, vindication at revenge. Everyone's eyes were glued to such a scene.

"Wha…" Jiraiya whispered.

"I don't know," Tsunade said. "But we have to count our blessings while we can. Let's go."

The phoenix floated to the ground and disappeared from the tail to the top, leaving naught but a head until the fire burst away and only the perpetrator of the phoenix remained, Temari no Sabaku.

Cradled in her arms was a chunk of orangish purple goo that stiffened and broke apart in her arms. There was a shock of blond, a feeble hand, whisker marks, and a rising chest. Temari knelt down, set Naruto the ground, and stiffly walked over him.

Tsunade was the first on the scene and felt her stomach tighten at the sight of the two of them. "T-Temari… what happened?"

The girl didn't answer. Her face was blank, like that of a doll's. She moved like there were lines at her joints and a puppeteer above her. Her eyes didn't even swivel to acknowledge Tsunade. Even so, she continued to walk on into the forest. Something drove her forward. Something moved her feet.

Tsunade tried to stop the girl out of concern that she would collapse dead at any moment, but the writhing body of Naruto took her attention away from her. Before going to Naruto, she paused to look at Temari one last time.

There were burns racing up almost all her visible skin. It was either red and irritated or gone entirely and wet with pus and sweat. In her arms was the weight of her war fan, which caused them to sag down almost unnaturally.

Tsunade looked away from the girl. Burns could be healed. New skin could be synthesized. You could survive with those injuries. But Naruto was a toss-up. She briefly considered making a clone to follow her with treatment, but her own chakra levels were dangerously low.

By the time the rest of the shinobi floated in, Temari was gone with the wind, vanished into the forest, guided by an unknown force. While everyone waited with baited breath to see if Naruto was okay, Temari was finding her own fight.

00000000

The clay dragon was big enough that it flattened a small copse of trees when it fell to the earth, itself breaking apart on the stones and returning to its softer state. The only thing that remained of the mad bomber was a few tattered robes and his miniature telescope. Sasori, however, still remained, dysfunctional as he was.

His entire lower half had been melted away by the fire and his joints rendered mostly inoperable. The only thing he could do was to turn his head and remaining functional eye her way.

She stopped in front of him with her war fan in both hands. Looking at the burns racing all around her body, her calm visage, her disjointed posture, he couldn't help but to think of her as a demon. Like she was sent from hell specifically to drag him down into it.

"It's a shame," he said to no one in particular. "You would have made such an excellent work of art."

"Still am," she said, shocking him with her ability to speak. Her glazed-over eyes betrayed any presence of intelligence. "I'm a _real_ piece of work. And so are you."

His head turned away, creaking as it did so. "I'm glad someone thinks-"

"Why did you kill him?" Temari asked, not caring for any answer he might have given.

"…He was our target."

"Yes, but why did you kill him?"

If he had the ability to sigh, he would have. "If you're here to kill me in turn, they you may as well do so. I'm naught but an empty shell full of nothing but air. The only thing I had was my art and now I don't have that anymore."

Temari blinked. "Why did you live? Why did you kill?"

"I lived for an everlasting existence. I killed for that reason as well."

"An everlasting existence? You're just a wooden doll, destined to fall into ruin once the strings are cut. You will be nothing. You will make nothing. Everything you touch turns to ash and you don't even realize it."

"And you-"

CRACK!

His ability to speak was taken away when her war fan crashed on his chest and splintered the wood. It came down again and hit his 'heart', forcing it to leak blood and creak in protest. His arm feebly moved up, as if to ward her off, but to no avail. The fan fell one last time and completely crushed his 'heart'.

His eye lost its luster and his limbs settled into place.

Temari was left alone in that clearing, surrounded with nothing but death and destruction. She felt numb, both emotionally and physically. She couldn't make sense of up and down. She couldn't make sense of right or wrong. The world didn't make any sense. There was no meaning. There was nothing. Not if such a thing could happen so simply. Not if death was always around the corner.

Temari fell to the ground.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Temari woke up to the sound of horses plodding through sandy dirt and the rough discourse of a group of people surrounding them on all sides. Above her was a beige tarp spread over thin rods of wood and her back was against soft, yet thin cushions. There was little feeling of jostling, but she could still tell that she was moving. At realizing that she felt constricted, Temari noticed that she was covered in white bandages nearly head to toe.

"Are you awake?" Came a rough voice to her side.

It was familiar enough that she didn't startle at the sound of it. Looking over, she saw Naruto leaned against the wall and bobbing to the beat and time of their carriage. He was shirtless with a few patches of bandages taped to his skin, but uncovered otherwise. More than anything, it was his face that caught her attention. His look of sadness and disappointment looked like it was etched in stone.

She sat up and stared at her hands, or, the bandages which covered them. "Yeah," she whispered, worried her voice would crack if she spoke even a little louder. "Where are we?"

He blinked, the only movement his face looked capable of creating. "A… cart. We're on our way to Sunagakure."

Temari blinked. The voices outside the cart sounded like they were from the other members of the contract, but their words were distorted by the cart. She couldn't hear anything. Temari looked at him more closely. He was sitting in a bed similar to hers and only covered by a thin sheet. "How long have you been awake?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. An hour, maybe?"

She looked back to her hands. She didn't feel hurt or numb or anything, so why was she covered in bandages? There had been bad burns before, she knew that much for sure, but it looked like they were gone now, or at the very least, they weren't hurting anymore. "So then… it all really happened."

His lips turned pursed and his eyes clenched. "I…" His voice cracked. "I'm so sorry," he barely whispered with an anguished lilt. "I… I wasn't fast enough. I wasn't strong enough. I… I couldn't save him."

Temari continued to stare at her hands while Naruto started to break down, sobbing uncontrollably. She could see through his balled-up hands that tears raced down his cheeks in tracts that he hadn't bothered wiping before. This wasn't his first breakdown. It might not be his last.

Using her sore and cramped muscles, Temari cringed a little bit as she nudged her way towards him. She grabbed one of his fists in both her hands and held it there. She didn't say anything for a few seconds and just held him, tried her best to comfort him. "It's… it's not your fault," she whispered, fearing that if she used her full voice that it would crack too and she would break down as well. "It's not your fault," she whispered again and again.

The sobbing turned into full-blown crying. He grabbed her hands with his and leaned his forehead against her shoulder. "I'm so sorry," he said. "It's all my fault."

She slipped her arms around his chest and let him lean against her. He was heavier than she thought and his tears were making her shoulder wet. He was crying so much. It was almost like his brother had died.

'And perhaps he was,' Temari thought darkly. They had been brothers-in-law for a few days before he died. But even so, Naruto and Gaara hadn't truly spent much time together. How could her shoulder be so wet from someone who barely even knew Gaara? And more to the point, why weren't her cheeks wet?

She closed her eyes and hooked her chin over his neck. Why wasn't the world easier to make sense of? Why did bad things happen?

00000000

Three days ago, night

"Not only has this union turned out to be a shitshow and your village nearly destroyed, but you blatantly lied to everyone! That kid doesn't have any control over his tailed beast. Hell, he hasn't even talked to it! What the hell have you been teaching him!" Ai's chest shuddered with indignation and his cheeks were flushed with rage as he vented his anger the only way he knew how to those in front of him.

"And now," he continued. "We're down one kage, two of the contract members are unconscious, two are barely keeping their eyes open, and there's almost a riot outside!" He paused to take a deep breath and leaned his hand against the wall.

They were all cramped together in a small wing of the Konoha hospital. The air was silent and cold outside. All their heads were dipped and somber. Ai seemed to be the only one able to get fired up. Beside two beds, Tsunade personally kept her hands to Temari's skin, healing the angry red marks and creating new skin for areas in which none remained. Naruto was still strained internally from all the chakra that eroded his system, but was stable, more or less, on the other bed. The rest of the kage and contract members were milling about or found seating on the beds and chairs.

Ai bristled at not being responded to by anyone. "I see now that this was a farce, something which could have only been a pipe dream. The village hidden in the clouds formally recludes ourselves from this contract."

"Don't listen to him."

Everyone had been busing themselves with looking busy, but at this challenge of authority, all eyes were squarely on the two feuding. If possible, the cold air got even colder. The tension could have been cut with a knife. Yugito stood up, the one who spoke, and stood opposite Ai. "We're still in this," she said evenly. "And I'm pretty sure 'reclude' isn't a word."

His nose turned upward. "You have no right to speak in this. I am your superior and you will obey my commands!"

She nodded slowly. "You're absolutely correct. I am obeying your commands."

His eyes turned to slits as he glared at her. "So you will come back to cloud with me," he ground out.

She shook her head. "I will not."

His fists clenched so hard that Yugito might have thought that blood would soon pour from his palms. Before he had a chance to open his mouth to shout again, she beat him to it, shouting back "I do believe that you had ordered me to try my best!"

Everyone was getting fidgety apart from Tsunade, who was concentrating on healing Temari. Eyes made contact with other eyes, everyone having silent conversations without saying so much as a word. Yugito waited a beat to continue. "You ordered me to try my best," she repeated, this time a little bit more subdued. "And I still am. And I still will until I can't anymore."

Ai, for his part, looked dumbfounded. His confusion was starting to trump his anger. "Weren't you the one most opposed to this? What made you change your tune?"

Yugito gulped. "Th-They're my friends." She said those words very unsurely. Like someone citing a fact that they may not know to be correct or not.

It was such an unexpected answer that it almost floored the muscle-bound man. "What?" he asked, an almost comic display of befuddlement on his face. "It's been all of three days."

"Even so," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I will not go back to cloud until it's the cloud's turn in its rotation. Everything will continue as planned. The contract will go on. The peace treaty will stand."

Ai pointed at the two bedridden shinobi. "You would risk ending up like those two for this peace treaty?"

One of her eyebrows rose. "You wouldn't?"

"It's obvious that there is a terrorist presence that doesn't want this treaty to continue and will do anything in their power to do it."

"And we killed them," Yugito answered simply.

Ai's jaw clenched. "And what of the boy? He's still untrained."

"And I will train him," Yugito answered simply, once more.

"If," Jiraiya said, interrupting their squabble, "I could interject. I don't think the akatsuki was trying to disrupt the treaty per se. They're after the tailed beasts. It looks like Konoha was just collateral."

Everyone blinked in confusion. "What?" Ai asked.

Tsunade sighed. "You may as well tell them everything we know. We were foolish as we were not to do so in the beginning."

Jiraiya clapped both his hands down on his knees and sighed. "Where to begin?" he muttered.

00000000

Present

For three days, the band of the strongest ninja on the face of the continent had been plodding along a well-worn trading route to get to their destination. They could have gotten to Sunagakure by then if they decided to run, but they were also in charge of transporting two unconscious members of the treaty, which gummed up the matters somewhat. They had to take a cart with them to carry Temari and Naruto, both of whom were physically fine, just unconscious.

"Listen guys, I know I've asked it before, but can someone explain to me what happened? Just the bullet points is okay. I just… it's so confusing."

Kurotsuchi, Mei, and Yugito were plodding along behind the cart that Temari and Naruto were resting in, each in their own version of desert garb. Despite the three days of walking, there hadn't been much verbal back-and-forth between them. Everyone was just too depressed. Especially the Konoha ninja, which had made Kurotsuchi more than a little hesitant to speaking overtly to what had happened to Konoha.

Yugito sighed a little bit. She wasn't much for sandy terrain and the oppressive heat of the sun wasn't helping her mood much at all. "Couple of terrorists invaded Konoha with clay explosives and puppets that looked like normal people. Their intention was to kidnap Gaara and extract his beast, which they did, but not before hitting Naruto with something that almost killed him. To save his life, Fu gave him some of Chomei's chakra, but he took too much and lost his mind. He caught their scent and went to the sewers to catch them, but was too late. He lost his mind even more and went full-blown beast mode. You guys almost got collapsed on and I tried to subdue him. Temari escaped on her own and ignited the flammable gasses in the sewer, then directed the fire to where Naruto was, subjugating him. But that's not the only thing she did, as she also killed the terrorists, one by bludgeoning him to death with her fan." She spoke with little pauses between punctuation, like someone who had been rolling the events in her head for quite a while.

Kurotsuchi nodded a little bit. "See, that makes sense. Well, no, nothing about that makes sense, but the way it was explained makes sense."

"Oh, bite me," Mei said with a playful tone. "Just because you can't keep with my exquisite vernacular doesn't mean that I should be held at fault here."

"What does vernacular mean?" Kurotsuchi asked, then turned to Yugito. "And who's Chomei anyway?"

The two older women sighed simultaneously and deigned not to answer, feeling that that would only bring up more questions to answer.

"Oh, so you're just going to ignore me then? Well fuck you guys!"

A small burst of laughter came from Yugito. "Come on, calm down. People will hear you."

"Oh, her yelling didn't stop any of us from hearing you three."

The three in question turned to look at the new face coming into their 'conversation'. Pink hair, green eyes, sour face. Sakura put one of her hands on her hips and sighed. "Everyone can hear you."

Their group was a relatively small one. The contract members, their heads of state (minus Tsunade and Gaara), Sakura, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. Perhaps it was due to the tension, the somberness, or the unwillingness to be the first one to speak up, but mostly everyone had remained quiet so far on the trip. Sakura had, at many times, wished to come over and break the ice, but the four standing contract members were either in their own world, or everything was quiet and she didn't want to be overheard. But those fears were shucked to the wayside once impatience won out.

Kurotsuchi shrugged off her concern, both physically and verbally. "It's not my fault none of you people know how to talk to people."

"You know it's more complicated than that," Mei said.

"But it's not! These people are just fucking around, moping up their lives, and too stuck in the past to put up decent conversation. Fuck that."

Yugito sighed in her palms and largely ignored Kurotsuchi. She looked up from her hand and gave a small smile to Sakura. "I don't think we've introduced ourselves yet. I'm Yugito Nii."

"Mei Terumi."

"Kurotsuchi."

By the time it was her turn to introduce herself, a small smile was also on Sakura's lips. She couldn't deny that their antics weren't amusing, if nothing else. "Sakura Haruno. I'm the idiot's teammate."

Yugito nudged Kurotsuchi. "I didn't know she was your teammate."

The raven-haired girl gave Yugito the stinkiest of eyes. "Children could have come up with better insults."

"I'm sure they could. You would know after all, as you're similar to them."

"That…" Kurotsuchi pinched the bridge of her nose. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Well at least I know what vernacular means."

"Hey!"

Mei giggled into her palm. "Are you quite sure these two aren't your teammates?" she asked Sakura as Yugito and Kurotsuchi split off into their own conversation.

She smiled. "Yeah, he's a blond. And he's also not a girl."

"Are you sure?" Mei asked. "Have you inspected his third arm in detail?"

A smattering of a blush stained the pinkette's cheeks at the vulgar euphemism. "Of course not," she said quickly. "He's always been clothed above the waist whenever I checked on him."

As she was the resident medic, Sakura had been taking care of the two unconscious shinobi for the duration of their trip.

Mei hid her giggling mouth with her hand. "If you say so."

Sakura's eye twitched. Trying to flip the tables on her, she slyly said "What about you? Any confirmations I should be aware of?" She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look haughty, which was immediately ruined when Mei turned to Yugito.

"Kitten, darling, our resident medic wants to know if any of us have given our dear husband a more… thorough examination since we've met him."

Yugito's eyes narrowed for the second they were confused and shot open at the realization of what her euphemism meant. Kurotsuchi crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the cat woman expectantly. "Yeah, Yugito. _Have_ any of us given him a more thorough examination since we've met him?"

Yugito looked all around herself with almost fearful eyes. "Why is this question directed at me?"

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, you have slept with him before."

"EXCUSE ME?" Sakura asked, equal parts horrified and angry.

"You!" Yugito leveled, pointing a finger at Mei. "You're making it sound like we had sex. We didn't. We were down a bed is all."

"So you…" Sakura started, but floundered with her words a little bit. "So why didn't you just set a bed up for him or something? Pillows on the floor, or a couch?"

"I owed him."

"For what?"

Yugito looked away with wide eyes, not liking where the conversation was going. "There was a disagreement that got a little heated," she admitted. "But we all walked away from it just fine. I owed him."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "What kind of disagreement? And what do you mean by 'heated'? Was that what the feeling of malice and hatred we all felt the second day-"

"What about you Kurotsuchi? Have you seen his dick?" Yugito asked quickly, hoping to get away from the topic of conversation as quickly as possible.

Sakura might have been a bit more dogged in her pursuit of knowing whether Yugito committed domestic abuse or not had Kurotsuchi's face not turned a bright red at the mention of her teammate's extremities.

Mei's singular showing eye widened a little bit at the unexpected development. "Oh, is there something our little explosion-in-waiting hasn't told us?"

"I…" Kurotsuchi took a breath and regained her composure. "I accidentally walked in on him taking a shower once. No biggie."

"It would appear that it had a lasting impact, however," Mei insinuated. "Any details you could spare? Is he packing? Which angle does it lean?"

"Okay," Sakura said, holding a hand up. "It's my fault we got on this tangent. I shouldn't have started this. I'm sorry. Honestly, I just wanted to come by here and… er, check up, I guess."

Yugito looked at her strangely. "Check up? Like… in a medical sense…"

Sakura shook her head. "No, no, not that. I just wanted to make sure that… you're all… fine… with this."

"With what?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"The…" Sakura sighed, shook her head, and tried again. "Naruto's important to me. He's my teammate and we've been through a lot. I just want to make sure that you're all on good terms with him. Or, failing that, on good enough terms that you don't want to kill him."

"I have no quarrel with him," Mei said simply. "Perhaps he lacks somewhat in tact, but that's no reason to want to kill him."

"He's nice," Yugito said.

"And I'm… okay with him," Kurotsuchi admitted.

The flaps of the tent fluttered open with the push of a belabored hand. "Good to know you're all buddy buddy with me," a coarse and tired voice said. "But I really need to piss."

Naruto pushed his head through the flaps and immediately winced at the angry sunlight pouring down at him. His hands gripped the middle bar for support as he gingerly set about getting out of the cart. He looked bad, but not in the physical sense. His eyes were reddened and his face was pale. There were tracts of dried tears on his cheeks and his voice sounded like it was either overused, or not used enough.

Yugito was the first to react, coming to his side and lending a shoulder he could wrap one of his arms around. Once his feet hit the ground, he hissed at the sudden pain. "Ach, that fucking hurts!"

The cat woman chuckled a little bit in a subdued manner. "Be thankful it isn't even noon yet. At its worst, sand can burn the pads of your feet. And you should really get some sunscreen on."

He began nodding halfway through her statement. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Piss first, then sunscreen and clothes. Actually, is there any ramen? I need some goodness in my system."

The other three women/girls stared at their interaction with varying amounts of unease. Even for the ones who barely knew him more than a few days, it was weird to see him look so defeated. His happiness was a mask. That much was apparent the second they saw him.

Yugito laughed a little bit more. "Maybe a shower first? You smell terrible."

"A shower in the desert? You sure the sun hasn't baked your brain?"

"All you need is a low power water jutsu."

"Which I find a lack of within me."

As they walked away from them and over a dune, the three couldn't help but to stand silently and watch their interaction take place. Sakura finally shook her head and sighed. "Oh, Naruto…"

Kurotsuchi brought her head to bear. "What?"

"He's always doing this," Sakura stated. "Pretending everything's alright when it isn't."

"I wouldn't say that," a voice said from the tent. Temari poked her head out and began to blink out the sun. She looked for the two who had retreated and clicked her tongue. "He must have really had to pee," she said to herself.

"You shouldn't be moving," Sakura was quick to say. "You're injured."

"I feel fine," Temari said, leaning her forearms on the middle beam with a bored expression on her face. "Well, no, I don't feel fine. I feel like shit. But my wounds are all healed up, if that's what you meant."

Sakura approached her and grabbed her arm as affectionately as she could. "Listen, I've taken courses in crisis counseling. If you need anybody to talk to-"

Temari made a noise somewhere between a grumble and a growl, interrupting the pinkette. "Thanks for your concern," Temari said in a way that implied she wasn't that thankful for her concern "But I'll get through everything on my own."

Sakura didn't look so sure, but backed off anyway. "It's a standing offer," she said, falling back to the rest of the group.

"So," Temari said, lounging off the cart. "Who wants to fill me on what's been going on?"

00000000

Yugito had heard men pee before, but perhaps not with quite the vigor and… noise, that Naruto was using. He belted out a sigh and leaned his head back, not that Yugito saw, what with her being turned around to allow his privacy and everything. "I tell you, nothing much beats the feeling of finally being able to pee after holding it in for a while," he said.

"I can think of a few things," Yugito replied with a small amount of humor.

"It's up there though."

Yugito nodded, mostly to herself though. "I would suppose so."

There wasn't much of a view from where she was, just the dark end of a dune they had traversed for the little amount of privacy that they could muster. "Listen," she said unsurely, wincing a little as she said it. She had never really been good with heart-to-hearts. The one time she had tried only ended up with the poor girl devolving into hysterics. Then again, perhaps she could have given more constructive emotional tools than what amounted to 'suck it up, you're a ninja'. "If you… need to talk about what happened…"

He sighed, put away his third arm, and turned around to hobble back up the dune. "Not really. I know what happened. I was too weak to help and because of that, one of my precious people died."

She shot a hand out and grabbed his shoulder once he was close enough. Her grip was like a vice. "Don't say that," she said with no small amount of malice. "That kind of thinking is cancerous. It will eat at you and leave nothing behind."

He shoved her off and started his journey back up the dune. "But it's true!" he almost shouted, cracking apart at the seams. "I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't fast enough. I let the hatred of the Kyuubi's and the Nanabi's chakra consume me, for god's sakes. If none of that happened, if I had been prepared, I could have averted everything."

Yugito was quick to catch up to him. "It wasn't your fault," she said pleadingly. "It was all of our fault for not being strong enough, for not catching them in their plans. If you put the burden of his death on you, then regret will hang above your head for the rest of your life."

"And why shouldn't it?" he gasped out. The dune was steep and he was still unsteady on his feet, not to mention the burning sand he was trying to scramble up. "I was the only one of two people who could have helped him and I gimped the other one and myself in one… in one fell swoop!"

"Do you think this doesn't weigh on us too? I think it about it every day if I had been with you too. I think about the things I could have done to help. I think about the failures I made. I think and think until I hate thinking! You're not the only one with blood on your hands. I've fucked up too. We all have. We're ninjas; it happens. But if you try to bear the weight of the world, then you'll be crushed."

He didn't look so amused. "And what if I want… to… go t- FUCK!" His feet stumbled underneath one another and he lost his footing. He might have fallen the way down had Yugito not been behind him to catch him before he could lean back even ten degrees.

She held him there for a second, circling her arms around his waist and tucking his shoulder under her chin. "The weight of the world is heavy. I should know. I was nearly crushed under it too."

He was on the verge of tears. Angry and frustrated and sad and not knowing what to think or how to think was he. "So what do I do?" he asked helplessly.

Her chest vibrated from the small, irony-filled chuckle that passed through her lungs. "Unless you're caught by the ones around you, then you fall. And sometimes, when you fall, you don't get back up. So make sure there's someone to catch you, ready to pull you back up."

Naruto was silent for a few seconds, allowing the full weight of his body to rest in her arms. "…I think you're mixing your metaphors," he finally said.

She laughed, but this time it was filled with genuine mirth. "The world does need to be held up, but it's lighter when you have people next to you, helping you to hold it up."

He grit his teeth. "I'm weak," he said. His hair tickled her nose as he shook his head. "And not… and not just now. I'm weak in general. I can't do anything."

Yugito pushed him up to his own two feet and ventured a few feet ahead of him, offering her hand to steady his. "Don't worry," she said with a genuine smile. It was the kind of smile that could banish the darkness in a room with not light. "I'll help you grow as strong as you want... We'll help you as much as you want."

It's weird how easy doubt could be banished from a soul mired in it, unable to move even one step forward. All it takes is a nice smile. Such a simple gesture could mean the world to someone stuck in darkness.

00000000

And yet, why couldn't he give the same security to someone who needed it even more?

Funerals in Sand were generally done either indoors or at night. Being outside as the sun bore down on the people grieving wasn't a very good setting, after all. And so, it was at night, on the fifth day of being away from leaf that they held the funeral. A hawk was sent first that reached sand quite a bit before they arrived, so the procession was already cued up by the time they got there. And it wasn't long after that that they were standing in front of a shallow grave made of sandstone surrounded by a procession of people clad in black, doing their best to hold back tears.

Naruto and Temari were set apart from the rest of the contract members as they were the only ones that had true ties Gaara. And yet, even though they were together, they were apart as well. He couldn't talk to her. He couldn't smile at her. The only thing he could do was to bow down his head in guilt. For even though he had resolved himself to get stronger, the fact of the matter was that he failed to save her brother

He and Temari had talked a lot during the next two days to reach sand. They traded black humor and stories of their past, usually devolving into their own family problems, or lack thereof. And it was… kind of enlightening. He kind of liked talking to her. Her disposition had always given him a sort of plain vibe, but there was a lot going on behind the obvious. She thought a lot. And talking to her made him think too. Granted, thinking wasn't really his strong suit, but he enjoyed it when she was there to facilitate.

Despite that, despite his newfound respect for the girl from sand, he couldn't say anything at the funeral. And that made him feel like the worst kind of person.

They were outside the walls of the village and in the front row of seats for his funeral. On either sides of his altar were the councilors and other high ranking individuals. Their faces were somber, but not quite sad. After all, they were people who dealt with tragedy as an everyday occurrence. They couldn't be expected to act with much compassion. At the podium, Kankuro was giving a eulogy, not that Naruto was listening. He wanted to, he really did, but… he couldn't. Temari wasn't going to speak and he didn't think he could either, so they opted out of it. And they were both feeling worse off for it.

Kankuro wasn't wearing his war paint or his cat suit. And without it, he looked surprisingly normal. Almost indistinguishable from any other regular joe. And he… he was crying too. He didn't look ashamed of it. Granted, Naruto didn't know what to expect from the guy, not having known him very well, but it hit home all the worse knowing that his siblings were kind of normal people. The kind of people who grieved over a loved one's death.

And then the empty casket made of sandstone descended into the graveyard of fellow unknown soldiers without even markers to tell where they came from. It was supposed to give a sense of unity, Naruto had been told, that every citizen of sand was your family. That you should grieve for them all as equally as you would your closest friends and family. Naruto kind of felt like the person who came up with that idea had never lost anyone close to them before. Because it felt like a big punch to the gut to think that he wouldn't know where to go to say sorry for failing.

He felt cold, clammy fingers intertwine with his own. They were shaking. He looked to the side and saw that Temari's cheeks were wet with tears, yet she hadn't sobbed yet. Her voice hadn't broken and her eyes remained defiantly open until the very last inch of casket was showing. She took in a deep breath and let loose a shaky, wet breath. She brought her other hand to clasp the first one and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. "I… I don't know why I'm crying now," she whispered helplessly. "I was… I was… completely helpless. I couldn't do anything. And I should've," her voice was interrupted by her sobbing. "And I should've saved him. I'm his older sister and I've never been able to do anything for him. I wasn't even able to save him-"

Before she could say another word, Naruto let go of her hands and wrapped his arms around her, buried her face into his breast, and put his cheek to the top her head. Him silencing her told her everything he wanted to say. That it wasn't her fault. That it wasn't anyone's fault really, other than the ones who perpetrated the madness.

But those two were already dead. So who was left to be blamed other than the self?

Despite his guilt, Naruto knew he couldn't blame himself anymore and he wouldn't let Temari blame herself either. He hated seeing her cry. The choking sobs that punched his chest were just heavier reminders that he needed to get stronger. Stronger than anyone else in the world so he could protect everyone he loved.

00000000

He knew from experience that the walk home was just as bad as the actual funeral. Attending the one for the third hokage was all the proof he ever needed. And while Iruka had walked him home then, it didn't change the fact that he had to face a dark, empty room with no one but himself around.

Now, it was Fu, Yugito, Kurotsuchi, and Mei walking a step or two behind him and Temari as they held each other up. Supporting and helpful they may try to be, they also knew when to give them some space.

The walk went by in a blur. They went through streets, saw common citizenry doing their business with somber expressions, ducked through back alleys, even peered into the houses of families in the process of making dinner.

Why was it that when you were sad that you wanted everyone else to feel like you as well?

And then he was standing with Temari, alone in her room. It was sparsely furnished, without even a picture of their family. The bed was plain, the walls were plain, the closets were plain. Was Temari plain?

No.

She was logical. She saw things through. She had a certain dignity about her. She wasn't much for merrymaking, but she knew how to smile when the time was right, even if it was a small one. She wasn't one for tomfoolery either and was probably the most mature one of their motley crew. She was like everyone's big sister.

She wasn't plain.

She was her.

Temari's hands found their way to his shoulders and she leaned her forehead against his temple. "Please…" she whispered, voice wobbly and about to break again. "Please… stay with me tonight. I don't want to be alone. Please… if only for tonight, make me feel good."

Naruto gulped. What was he supposed to do? Reject her? Accept her? What would be the consequences? What would be the outcomes? What would everyone think? Would the contract come tumbling down?

And why was he thinking anyway? Wasn't he supposed to be a man of action?

After standing in relative silence for a few seconds, Naruto disengaged and put a finger under her chin, bringing her head up so he could look her in the eyes.

He leaned forward and kissed her.

It didn't feel romantic. In fact, it felt like just the exact opposite of romantic. But it also felt like the right thing to do. Both of them were hurting. They didn't want to hurt anymore.

So they decided not to.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Naruto was sitting in front of the Kyuubi. Neither of them had spoken very much since he got there. In fact, Naruto had only really given a few pleasantries before sitting down in front of an ever-silent tailed beast. And Kurama wasn't trying to feign sleep either, surprisingly enough. He was sitting up as regally as he could, eyeing Naruto just as intently as the boy was to him. Kurama thought that it was odd that Naruto was the one refusing to talk considering his normally bouncy and hyperactive personality.

Minutes went by in silence before Kurama got too exasperated and gave in. Sighing while closing his eyes, he paced around his cell and laid down, resting his chin on his paws as he did so. **"** **Okay kit, I'll bite. Why are you in here?"**

Naruto shrugged. "Honestly? No clue."

If it was meant to pique his interest, then it certainly achieved its goal. **"…** **Then why are you here?"**

Naruto sighed explosively and laid back, supporting his back with his arms. "Yugito's right outside making sure I stay and talk to you. I think we're supposed to make a deal or something."

One of Kurama's eyebrows rose. **"** **Oh? What are your conditions?"**

"My conditions for what?"

 **"** **The… deal you're trying to make?"** Kurama asked confusedly.

It was Naruto's turn to look perplexed. "We're making a deal?"

Kurama sat back up and pinched the top of his muzzle the way a human would the bridge of their nose. **"** **I think I'd be better served wasting my time in silence and alone than with you. If you have no goal and only seek to annoy me, then just leave already."**

"Can't."

 **"** **And why is that?"**

"Yugito would just send me right back."

 **"** **Then I suppose we're at an impasse here."**

"I would suppose we are."

Another few minutes went on with them just staring at each other before Kurama lost his patience again. **"** **What's it going to take to get you to leave?"**

He shrugged. "Dunno."

Kurama closed his eyes. **"** **If I were to be given the choice between dealing with maliciousness or idiocy, I would have to give that option serious consideration because of you. If you don't know what you need, then leave and ask and come back."**

"Okay, one: I'm not an idiot. Two: I know what I need to be able to leave and not come back. Three: it's not possible."

 **"** **What isn't possible?"**

"A deal."

 **"** **Why not?"**

"You tried to kill me."

Kurama's premature retort died in his mouth. He let out the breath that was building in his chest out slowly and walked around with his head down. Time was a bitch. It always was. It gave your emotions time to stew and ferment. It made you forget logic. Kurama didn't think he was wrong for what he did, but he also didn't think he was right. He didn't know what he was anymore.

Failed murder-suicides tended to give those results.

In all honestly, he was surprised the kid didn't accuse him of the reason why Gaara died. He was surprised he wasn't being yelled at and was instead being looked at with a sort of disinterested passiveness.

Perhaps it wasn't to the scale that he had felt pain, but the kid knew the sort that he was subjected to as well. Kurama hated being in a cage. He hated being used. He hated that he hated so much. He hated the kid. He hated his siblings. He hated that everyone hated him.

Kurama flattened his ears to the back of his head and looked away. **"** **I'll give you chakra when you want it. But don't think that doesn't mean you'll be able to handle it.** ** _You_** **have to be strong. I can't be strong for you."**

He wasn't looking, so he couldn't see the expression Naruto made as he got up and turned around. He also didn't hear any words spoken or sudden bursts of movement. Just the slogging of water being disturbed around ankles as Naruto left.

Kurama hated.

And he hated that he hated.

00000000

Naruto opened his eyes to the scorching view of the midmorning sun. Thankfully, the burn only lasted a few seconds before it was blocked out by an imposing figure that stepped in front of him. He didn't have to wonder long as to who it was as a slender, fair skinned arm extended its way to him.

He took the offered hand and pulled himself up and smiled a little bit at the look on Yugito's face. It was a mixture of apprehensive, stern, and worried. "How'd it go?" She asked evenly.

He crossed his arms over his chest and beamed at her. "I'm hurt that you doubted me so much."

Though the worry melted away from her disposition, the other features painting her face remained much the same. It was obvious to anyone looking that she had something she felt needed to be said, but she didn't for whatever reason.

And Naruto fell under that umbrella as well. His face hardened when he noticed her reticence. She wasn't normally like that. She was the one who started and ended things, not the one who muddled into them. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She was gripping the edges of her sleeves like her life depended on it. Doubt and worry took her eyes away from his as she tried to figure out a way to say what she needed to say. "You… would you say that we're… friends?"

Naruto blinked in surprise at the simple question. "Of course."

"And… if, hypothetically, something were to happen to me, you'd be worried for me, right?"

A cold hand of fear grabbed at his inner being. He wasn't liking where the conversation was going. Terrible possibilities of what might have happened to her zipped through his mind like armor piercing bullets. He gulped. "Is something wrong?" he asked quickly.

She shook her head quickly. "No, not with me. But… since you would worry for me, do you think it's odd that I would worry for you?"

It took a few seconds for him to realize what she had been trying to do. Then a few more for him to not like it. His face settled on annoyed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't worry me like that," he said.

She splayed her hands to her sides as a look of indignation came to her face. "Well what am I supposed to do? You only ever want to talk if I either beat it out of you or if I physically drag you up a fucking sand dune. Why can't you just, you know, talk about your feelings?"

His lips pursed and he shifted his gaze downwards. "I… It's hard to talk about shit that you don't even... that not even _you_ know about yourself. I'm still… figuring things out, okay?"

Yugito closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise to her considering the similarities in their childhood, but he really did remind her of herself, only younger. It made her want to help him in any way she could, protect him from everything if she had to. "I've found that I always felt better when I opened up to people. Even if my thoughts were jumbled. We're… we're social creatures. It's what we're supposed to do. Now come on," she said as she sat down with her legs crossed. "Talk."

He hesitated a bit before sitting down, though not before letting loose a belabored sigh to show his displeasure. "Talk talk talk talk talk," he said. "I thought I was a man of action."

One of her eyebrows went up. "A man who acts without thinking is no better than an animal."

"It's an expression," he said grumpily. "I think on occasion. I think enough, at least."

"So… what are you thinking?"

"About what?"

"About what's hurting you."

One of his eyes twitched. "Oh, I don't know? Maybe it's because I let one of my best friends die? Maybe it's because- maybe it's because…" he stuttered a stop, his face turning red, but not due to anger. Though there was an edge to his voice, his face was conflicted and at war with itself when it turned red.

"Maybe it's because…" Yugito said slowly. "You and Temari…"

His eyes went wide open with shock and he looked at her like he'd been doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

"You two weren't exactly, erm, quiet, last night."

His face went a brighter red and he looked down. "I… I… My heart feels like it's- it's split into five different parts around my body and each part hurts a lot. I… I don't think I've ever been in love before and now… and now it's like I'm in love in a lot of different ways that don't make a lot of sense. Whenever I try to think about it, I just get sad, or nervous, or… or I feel like I shouldn't feel that way. It sucks. It fucking sucks."

You didn't have to hear about his troubles to know that he was in great emotional turmoil. Everything that needed to be said was said across his face. Yugito didn't think an anecdote was going to help. She didn't know if she could help and that made her feel bad. There was a thing to be said over getting help, but she also knew that there was a component to emotions that individuals had to work out themselves.

She wasn't going to just let that lie, however. She was going to be do her best for him. She was going to be there for him.

Yugito nodded. "You're right. That does suck."

There were tears welling up in his eyes as he looked at her, almost dumbstruck. Then he smiled a little. He couldn't believe how much relief swept over him when someone just… sympathized with him. "I… I think I love Temari," he said. "But… I don't know. We just… last night was… it was confusing."

"Did it feel good?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Did she feel good?" she asked.

He hesitated. "I… I think so. She was… erm, she was moaning a lot."

"Then she probably felt good," she concluded. Before he could respond, she continued with her questions. "So you think you love her?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Then spend time with her," she said, like it was as simple as counting to 2. "Talk to her. If there's chemistry, then there's chemistry. If not then…" she trailed off.

"Then there's not," he finished. "But…" he looked away. "But I still… I think I still love Kurotsuchi. And I like Fu too maybe. And you too. And Mei… I heard about how she followed me when I tunneled into the sewers without hesitating even a little bit. I think I like her too."

She smiled a little. "Okay," she said.

He looked at her with half-lidded eyes. Agreement was good, but it was starting to sound like sycophantry. "That's… But I'm not supposed to, erm, love… multiple people."

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, formulating her answer in her head for a few seconds before responding. "If… if you're completely honest about your feelings from the get go, and so are they, then there's nothing wrong. You may get rejected, or get your heart broken, or… maybe everything ends up okay at the end. You don't know. You can't know. No one can. So just… I know it doesn't really help you much, but the best advice I can give is to tell you to try your best. And I can also let you know that no matter what happens, I'll be here waiting for you."

He smiled. And, if only just for a moment, he felt better.

"So, now that the heavy stuff's over with, let's talk about you and the Kyuubi."

Then his mood soured.

00000000

The council chamber was silent. So silent that if a mouse farted, it would be as audible as a scream. No one spoke because they were all too shocked; like they'd all been hit in the faces with shovels. Not even Baki or Kankuro were exempt from this, which wasn't very surprising when considered with the fact that Temari hadn't spoken to them much before they entered the room.

"Temari," Kankuro said, grabbing her forearm. "Are you fucking mental?" he hissed.

Though his intention was to be quiet, everyone heard him; each and every single councilor on the seat of the council.

"Kankuro," she said with authority and no small edge. "If you'd let go of me…"

His lips pursed and his hand relaxed, falling to his side.

"Like I just said," Temari said, puffing her chest out and speaking with as regal a voice as she could muster. "I would like to formally take over the role of Kazekage from my brother, who has perished a week ago."

One of the councilors sitting closest to her smirked and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. He was a young upstart, only in his seat of power due to political maneuvering. He may have had the power of a jonin, but he hadn't been distinguished from the amount that remained in hidden sand like Temari had. "I'm not sure if you're aware," he said condescendingly. "But there's a tradition we have in sand for picking the next leader, and-"

"Kuzu," she interrupted with a glinting, dangerous smile on her face. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

He faltered, though he didn't let the smirk fall altogether from his mouth. "E-Erm, I was trying to sugg-"

Temari stepped away from the end of the table and walked the short distance to where Kuzu was sitting. "You were trying to suggest that I'm not aware as to how the kazekage is picked. That, even though it has gone to the strongest ninja, there's also a vetting process by the council to determine if the kage is even sane or not, or knows how to lead."

His smirk had turned downward, transforming into a hate-filled sneer. "Looks like the dog knows not to shit on the carpet, but does it anyway. Don't think that just because you're family that means you'll be shown preferential treatment in becoming the leader."

The difference in their height meant that he had to crane his neck up to speak to her. "If there's anybody else you think would be a good fit for being leader, then by all means, enlighten me," she said.

He floundered. "It goes to the strongest. And the strongest is usually groomed by the previous kage."

"And we're not in our 'usual' scenario, are we now?" she questioned rhetorically. Her voice was rising both in tone and in mocking. "As it stands, I'm the strongest wind user in hidden sand, I'm the closest one with the knowledge to lead said village, and I'm also the hidden sand's contract member instrumental in creating world peace."

He stood up violently, his chair clattering to the side. His nose flared and his mouth was set in a line. After roughly poking a finger in her chest, he leaned down and said "Just because you're the whore your brother sent as a concubine for a treaty that won't last, doesn't mean you're fit to rule our village. In fact, I'd argue the opposite."

Not even a smidge of anger appeared on her face. Loudly, so that all could hear, she said "If liking having a giant prick stuffed up my cunt makes me a whore, then yeah, I guess I'm a whore. But I'm a whore that will rule. Not because I have friends in high places. Not because I bullied others into letting me lead. No, I will lead because I'm the most qualified. Now sit down Kuzu, we have a vote to let through."

With that, she stalked away from him and stood back with her shocked brother and Baki and faced the councilors. "All who would vote to let the hat of the kage pass from my brother to me, raise their hands."

There was no movement for a beat or two, long enough for a triumphant grin to spread across Kuzu's face. However, at the back, a single feeble hand was raised. Then another joined his, then two more joined hers. It kept up until Kuzu was the only one who didn't have his hand up, looking around the council room, a ghost of horror etched in his face.

Without a mask of righteousness or an air of superiority, Temari addressed them all with a grateful face and said, while bowing only incrementally "I thank you all for your support in this matter. I will do my best to fulfill my duties to the village hidden in the sand. Although I'm sure there are many other matters at hand, I now have to make myself familiar with the minutia that will be needed of me while I still have the chance." She stood back up. "So, if you'd allow me, I'll be taking my leave."

With Kankuro and Baki in tow, she left the councilors to themselves.

00000000

Naruto didn't think he would ever understand Mei. Her personality and disposition seemingly changed like the clouds in the sky, she often misinterpreted sentences and threatened death afterwards, and she always smiled, whether she was happy or not. She was a hard woman to be around, but also a little bit easy in certain ways. For one, she was very intelligent and of capable of getting her points across in an effective manner. Also, despite her many eccentricities, there rang true a rigidly maintained morality structure in her being. And she helped people. She seemed to like helping people.

Too bad her idea of 'helping' was putting Naruto through a hellish training session.

She was better at fighting than him in almost every way. Whether than be through strength, speed, quality of ninjutsu, intelligence, tactics, agility, or accuracy. She was capable of punching him twice in the abdomen when he only saw one. She was capable of encasing him in a (mostly) harmless lava solution without him seeing it coming. She could quite literally run circles around him.

The only reason he came out on top, in fact, was because she wasn't using 'sharp' techniques, and that his indomitable will and endurance outclassed even that of his Jinchuuriki peers.

It ended with the decided 'thump' of his fist meeting her cheek for the first time after about an hour and a half of sparring left her lethargic and slow… well, slower than usual. She wasn't prepared for it and was set a few feet back, sprawling into the sand. She went to get up, but her exhaustion took the better of her and she slumped down, covering her eyes in the sun.

"You can last long, I'll give you that. But then again, I already knew that," she mumbled from the ground.

Naruto, in a sweat logged sand outfit, wiped his brow and fell on his ass next to her. "Did you talk to Yugito then?" he asked in between heavy breaths of warm air.

She looked at him with her single, uncovered eye. "Just so we don't let miscommunication back into our lives after so short a time without it, please explain what you mean."

He laid down too and covered his eyes with his arm. "We're talking about the fight, right?" he asked.

"The fight?" Mei asked incredulously. "What fight?"

"A few days into the… uh… the contract, I guess, we got into a fight. We even accidentally let our tailed beast chakra take control. You felt that, didn't you?"

Realization struck her vocal chords. "Ohhh, now I remember. That was you two fighting? I wondered about that. What did you two fight over?"

He shrugged, shifting sand around his neck into a sort of pillow. "I don't remember. Stupid stuff. We were both kind of pissed off at the situation we were in, then we let our egos get the better of us. She ended up having to carry me back to the house we were staying at."

She whistled. "Can't imagine that felt good for her pride."

"What? No, we… we came to an understanding during that walk."

Mei harrumphed after a beat or two of contemplative thought. "That woman is so mannish, I tell you."

Naruto sat up, intrigued by this sudden turn of conversation. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The woman hummed disapprovingly to herself. "Perhaps I worded that wrong. I mean to imply that she tackles her problem the way a man would, is all. Not that that's right or wrong. It's just unexpected."

"And how do men solve their problems?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Head on," she said dispassionately. "They tackle them with a sort of gusto and recklessness that's absent from most women. And in a way, I admire that brand of behavior. But it's also easy. What's hard is talking through things with words. Pitting one ideology against another."

Naruto shook his head. "You can't tell me that women are the sort that talk their problems through. I've seen the way women and girls act around each other. It's like… it's all a game to them. They talk, but they don't mean what they say."

Mei hummed again. "Perhaps we got onto this topic of gendered ways of thinking too hastily. I'm sure it's all quite more convoluted than either of us could imagine and it's a topic for perhaps a heavier time. To get back to the start of our conversation, I was trying to imply that you and Temari were going at it for quite a while before there was any hope for me getting to sleep."

Naruto, for his part, was done at getting embarrassed over someone knowing about his sex life. There was enough of that when he talked with Yugito. "We didn't go for _that_ long," he said defensively.

"Was it your first time?" she asked.

"Err… yeah. Hers too."

"Then I suppose it makes sense you'd go for more rounds. Youthful exuberance and all that."

"Why do you talk like you're old? You're 24."

"That? Oh, I lied about that. I'm actually 31."

"Why'd you lie?" Naruto asked, staring up at the sky. His battered exhaustion meant that surprise was left to the wayside. He was still in fighting mode. Action and reaction.

She belted out a sigh and rolled over to her side. "Oh, it gets embarrassing when you get past the age that's okay to get married to talk about your age. And you seemed so dogged in your pursuit of knowledge before that it just seemed easier to lie then to go on that tangent."

"And why are you telling the truth now?"

Mei sat up and got back up to her feet. There was a bit of a wobble from the exertion that took place just minutes prior, but she was steady for the most part. She reached out a hand for him, which he took happily. "My opinion of you when we first met wasn't too good," she said. "But, now that we've spoken a little bit more, it's improved."

He smiled a little bit. "You talk like a robot. You know, you could just say that you're warming up to my ridiculously awesome personality."

She patted him on the back in a particularly sore spot, which she had known, seeing as she put them there. "That's one word for it."

00000000

Naruto stood before the door to her office, hand outstretched, and eyes set in deep conflict. He was trying to think of things to talk about. How to go about speaking to her. What to breach. He feared what she might say and was hopeful of how she might look at him.

"Is there something that you need?"

It was her voice, muffled by the wooden door and slightly annoyed. She was probably busy with something else and he just interrupted her. This was already going so poorly.

Taking a deep breath, he took a hold of the handle and opened the door. The first thing he saw was her silhouette against the setting sun. It was a picture of warm yellow and orange that she was pressed against. Her head was turned down, staring at a paper that she had lifted slightly. He wasn't sure if she knew it was him or not. She seemed way too focused.

He walked forward and sat in the chair opposite and just… looked at her. It made him feel calm. Finally, she glanced up and her disposition was changed in a flash. Gone was the focused, stern, and dour Temari and in its place was the warm, intelligent, smiling Temari. Yes, she was smiling. It wasn't great or big or beaming, but it was genuine. And that made him happy.

"Sorry," she said with a genuine amount of remorse in her voice. "I've had a bit of a busy afternoon. Didn't even know you were at the door. Thought it might be this prick councilor wanting a last word and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of my attention."

He was smiling too. "A busy afternoon is a bit of an overstatement. You're a kage now. I'm… married to a kage now."

She chuckled a little bit. In that moment, the glow from her face was identical to the one of the setting sun's. "You already were married to one. What's Mei? Chopped meat?"

He shrugged. "Guess You're right. Now I'm married to two though. That's a first."

"It certainly is."

It was the sort of talk that didn't mean anything but still felt good anyways. He liked sharing moments with her. It was a feeling that was new and terrifying and hopeful.

And he liked it.

"I…" he tapped his index finger against his thigh a few times. "I missed you this morning."

She looked down, her smiling levelling out. "I… I meant to… wake up with you, but you're such a late-riser and I needed to make myself familiar with all the legal stuff and… and I guess these excuses don't mean much to you."

When she looked back up, all she saw was his smile. It looked forced. Fake. "Temari," he said, gulping. "I… I think I love you."

Silence.

"And," he continued on. "And the reason I say 'think' is because I haven't felt this way before. And… I honestly don't know much about you. But the things I have seen, I like. I don't, erm," his face turned red. "I don't mean, like, your uhm… your body or anything, well, I like that too, but I mean your… the way you face things. The way you look at things. The way you talk. I like them all. And e-"

She leaned over her desk to grab his hand. She was smiling as she sat back down. "I… I think I love you too. Honestly, I thought you were just an idiot who couldn't see anything more complex than black and white, but… you're smarter than that, even if you don't show it often. And you're compassionate. And so sensitive. And… I think I love you."

He clasped her hand in his, smile beaming forth from his inner being. "I… but…" His mouth turned to a frown. "I… I think I love them too," he said helplessly.

Temari blinked. "What?"

"Kurotsuchi and Fu and Yugito and Mei… I think I love them too. Each in… different ways. But, I still love them. And… it… feels like… I feel like it would be wrong, er… disingenuous to... I don't… I don't like that I love them and you at the same time," he finalized. "I feel like… it's wrong to you."

She didn't say anything for a few beats until she took a deep breath and sighed, turning away from him to look at the sunset Temari said "I… I knew that you and Kurotsuchi had something between you two when I… when I, erm, accosted you, let's say, last night. In all honesty, I was expecting you to come through that door to tell me last night was a mistake and I was… preparing for that. So… I'm happy that you don't think so. And if…" she sighed. "I'm in uncharted territories here too. If you love the others, then I can't tell you that's the wrong way you should feel. How you feel is, well, how you feel. And… I… I'll keep an open mind," she said with a note of finality. "But I'll always be honest with my feelings, no matter how brutal or honest. I think that's the sort of thing that's required for something like this."

Naruto got up from his seat and circled around her desk. He got down on one knee and looked her in the eyes. "This is going to be really hard," he said, smiling because it was the only thing he could.

She laughed a little bit. "You're telling me? I don't want to share you."

He leaned in close and kissed her. "But… I'm a pretty big undertaking. If you don't share me, you could get overwhelmed."

She slapped him half-heartedly on the arm. "I'm being serious here," even though she said that with a smile.

He leaned his forehead against hers. "And I'm… trying to be funny. Lighten the mood. Make you feel happy."

She cupped his cheek. "You don't have to say funny things to make me happy. You just have to be here."

They didn't say anything else to each other the rest of the night. They just watched the sun dip down over the sandy horizons and gazed at the stars that came blinking out. And then…

Well, they had the room to themselves…


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The tapping had gone on for so long that Temari had tuned it out, preferring to read deeper into the proposal for the next jonin candidates. Instead of the chunin exams, the jonin were promoted through peer review, and for good reason. The jonin were supposed to each have their own uniqueness to them that made them indispensable to the fighting force. If that individuality was on display for the world to see, then it wouldn't be quite so individual anymore. It could easily be countered. And that wasn't good. Especially not for shino-

Kurotsuchi coughed, bringing Temari out of her focus. Right, the tapping. The sound of a foot repeatedly slapping the ground out of impatience. The girl hadn't budged an inch since she sat down, expecting Temari to speak first. If that was the intention, then she failed spectacularly. She should have brought reading material if she was going to out-stubborn Temari.

Temari glanced up to look at her face. The girl's lips were pursed in a thin line, her nostrils were flared, and her brow was pressed downwards.

She was pissed.

Fu on the other hand…

Temari glanced to her next, sitting to Kurotsuchi's left. Head supported in her hands with her elbows on her thighs. She was the epitome of 'dour'. Temari had a feeling that the green haired girl had to be dragged by someone else to come to the summons, presumably Kurotsuchi.

"Okay…" Kurotsuchi ground out in a deep growl. "I'll bite. What do you want?" It was an accusatory remark. The presumption of guilt clear in her mind.

Temari set down her pen with a clink and leaned back a little bit, stretching out her spine and twisting the kinks out of her neck. "To talk," she said. "I haven't been able to talk to you all at home due to my workload, but this is a conversation that needs to happen."

Kurotsuchi's eyes squinted. "This should be good."

Temari's head tilted down slightly as she sighed out. "I understand the two of you had feelings for Naruto. And me… let's call it 'intruding' threw a bit-"

"Fucking."

Temari blinked. "Excuse me?"

"You called it intruding. I'm calling it fucking."

Temari's eyes closed. "I understand you're upset, but-"

Kurotsuchi stood up. "But what? I get that your brother died and everything, but that doesn't give you the right to screw him. I-" Her voice died in her throat as a slight growl.

"You love him too," Temari finished.

Kurotsuchi sat back down, this time with a more dejected air. "I don't _love_ him-"

"You don't know how you feel, I know," Temari said hurriedly, "It's part of why I called you two here."

Fu looked up. "What's going on? I don't want to waste any more time here."

"I was getting to that," Temari said calmly and evenly. God, this wasn't going to plan. Then again, it wasn't like she had a plan; just a mental list of possible outcomes with most of them ending up badly. "It seems that Naruto… loves us all in one way or another and is also quite confused over it."

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened and Fu looked interested for the first time since she opened the door. "What's that mean?" She asked warily.

"I… 'approached' Naruto when-"

"Fucked," Kurotsuchi said.

Temari took a calming breath. "I fucked Naruto when I knew that you had feelings for him and when he had feelings for you. I get it. It's my bad. I'm admitting that. The end result is that even though I'm very much in love with Naruto and he seems to reciprocate that love, he's very much confused now. It's understandable, really. I called you in here to tell you that."

Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes. "That was it? You called us here to call dibs and not to interfere even if he comes on to us? Well I have something to say in return. Fuck-"

"That's NOT what I'm saying!" Temari said, losing a bit of her patience. She took another calming breath and leaned her forehead on her hand. "Listen, he's emotionally confused and I wouldn't be a good girlfriend if I didn't let him work that out on his own. So, what I'm trying to say is… I'm willing to… let him express them if he wants to."

Fu perked up, a shit-eating grin on her face. "You're okay with sharing? Why didn't you say so in the first place? This is awesome!"

The girl proceeded to stand up, start pacing around, and began talking, mostly to herself. Kurotsuchi, meanwhile, just stared at Temari, dumbstruck. "You want to share him?"

"I _don't_ want to share him," Temari said decisively. "But… well, this isn't a good situation for any of us. Mostly, I just want to be able to say that what I do makes him happy, more fulfilled. And if that means that the way he expresses his feelings for you is by… romantic love, then so be it. I'll love him all the same. Maybe I'll love him all the same. If he changes for the worse, I won't hesitate to scorch earth."

"Wait!" Fu nearly shouted to nothing in particular before leveling her gaze at Temari. "Where is he right now?"

Temari shrugged. "Training with Yugito, I think."

"And where's Yugito?"

Temari shook her head, closed her eyes, and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose all in one motion. "I don't know."

Kurotsuchi turned around to Fu. "What do you want him for?"

The girl folded her arms over her chest, beamed a bright smile to the ceiling, and leaned back a little bit. "I'm taking him out for a date," she said decisively, belting out a triumphant laugh afterwards.

A few seconds of no one speaking went by until Fu cracked an eye open and glanced down at Temari, as if waiting for a reaction.

Temari startled back into the conversation, having been lost in her own thoughts for a few seconds. "O-Oh, uhm… good for you, I guess."

With the approval of his girlfriend, Fu blew out the door to ask Naruto out on a date. Kurotsuchi turned back around to Temari with a smirk tugging on her lips and said "You're in a fucked situation."

Temari groaned and swiveled around on her chair, closing her eyes. "Aren't we all?"

"But you in particular."

Temari sighed. "Well at least I'm getting into situations where I do get fucked."

"HEY!"

00000000

The room they were in was practically a glorified cave with the exception that it had weapons instead of stalactites and a very pissed off Uchiha standing in front of a kneeling one. "You've postponed this conversation long enough, Obito. Why have you given me life?"

Obito stood up and took his mask off, showing his gnarled and twisted features. "The situation called for it."

"I believe I ordered you to wait until absolutely necessary to resurrect me."

"Like I said," Obito said through grit teeth. "The situation called for it."

"For the one-tail? The tailed beast with the lowest amount of chakra? And why couldn't you have solved it yourself?"

"World peace, for one."

Madara paused for a few seconds before narrowing his eyes. "World peace? And I thought I saved you to help me, not to go mad."

Obito shrugged. "Go outside, read the papers, hear the chatter, I don't really care. There's world peace now and it took all of us, including you, to extract the beast. And we still lost two members."

"So, you admit to your incompetence."

Obito's nose turned upwards. "It was one city with all the world's greatest shinobi clustered around one point. How did you expect it to turn out? We needed you, or else everything else we lost would have been compounded by not even extracting the one-tail."

"Was patience not a virtue?"

The corner of Obito's lip curled up. "And to the bold goes victory. We can sit around and comfort ourselves with vague and contradicting aphorisms, but what's done is done. You're here now."

Madara growled. "And the one who resurrected me? How does he fare?"

"He's weaker; that's for sure."

"What was his name again? Naga… something?"

"He goes by Pain now."

One of Madara's eyebrows raised. "'Excuse me? Pain? Who the hell let him get that name through peer review?"

Obito shrugged. "It goes with his aesthetic, I guess?"

"And what's my aesthetic? Walking around, looking for brains?"

"Madara."

"What should my name be? Madead? Maundead? Goes swimmingly with my aesthetic of being back from the dead."

"Madara."

"And what should yours be? Swirly Face?"

"That doesn't even incorporate my name."

Madara belted out a sigh and turned around, deciding to walk to the entrance rather than pursue the conversation even longer. "Tell me the details of this 'World Peace'. I Can't imagine it's something that could last for very long, given what I knew of the world since departing it."

Obito closed his eyes and resigned his self to the fate of telling arguably the most powerful man in the world that the peace hinged on a six-way political marriage.

00000000

Naruto was light on his feet as he strafed to the side perpetually, trying to get a read on Yugito's stance. She was a lot of things, but sturdiness wasn't her strong suit. Yes, she had muscles enough to wrestle down most normal men, but her fighting expertise was in not getting hit in the first place, something remarkably hard to achieve, even for a shinobi.

Every time he strafed right, she would strafe left. In that way, they had been circling around each other for a few seconds already, nursing their wounds and sizing up the others'. Naruto was perfectly fine with his fighting style of not really having a fighting style. It went with his unpredictable nature, especially since he used a liberal amount of clones with him as he usually fought. However, even he knew that in a straight taijutsu fight, the only thing he had going for him was his endurance. Having a root in an actual fighting style would definitely help if worse came to worse.

He had to stop thinking and start reacting when she darted forward, one hand forward and one behind her back. She jabbed her leading hand just enough that he flinched away instinctively. She smiled a little bit as she swung her body around and aimed a kick at his head. Fighting against his instincts to block it, he knelt down instead and let it sail through air. She appeared to have been expecting this, as she completed the rotation and whipped the hand behind her back forward, aiming for his face.

Instead of shooting out of the way, he pounced forward, letting the palm glance his jaw with enough force to nearly dislocate it, and kept going forward. He wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her to the floor, where he slid his arms up and wrapped them around her shoulders and then her neck.

They both paused for a second, each other's muscles tensed and coiled. "Tap out," he whispered as her face started to turn red from lack of oxygen.

Spittle flew out of her mouth as she laughed.

Yugito turned her head around, coiled her entire body upward, and firmly grabbed his biceps, then fell over his head, popping her head out of his lock and flipping him over his back in an arm lock all in one fluid motion.

There wasn't just practice in her movement, but experience as well. It only took a glance at the way they moved for anyone to see that he was a weaker opponent, even if he might have won had jutsu been allowed to have been used.

And that's a big maybe.

"Stop, stop stop stop stop," an exasperated voice came from the sidelines of the little arena.

In truth, the 'arena' was a circle of sand citizens cheering, jeering, and holding impromptu betting pots as they made a general ruckus. The crowd had grown so wide that many had taken to watching from the rooftops. There were even vendors on the outskirts that had sensed a business opportunity and had started selling their wares.

It was almost like a mini festival.

And it all sprouted around Yugito instructing Naruto on the finer points of not getting hit in the middle of the village center.

Sakura, the one asking for a stopping point, walked up to them and started doing diagnostic jutsu as soon as they disengaged. She centered her attention around their necks and quickly healed any micro abrasions before they could get worse and harder to heal. "You know," she said. "Just because I'm watching you two doesn't mean you can punch each other until dead. You're still just sparring. Try to keep asphyxiation out of this."

Naruto just grinned at her and said "But I wanna give the good people a show that they deserve!" Saying the last part, he turned around and held his arms up in the air, eliciting a cheer from the crowd.

Yugito put a hand on his shoulder and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to cause a riot or learn taijutsu?"

He lowered his hands and hung his head. "Taijutsu."

They walked to the side and passed around a bottle of water to drink. The heat and light of the sun was oppressive, but that just added more heat to the furnace through which the sharper blade would be forged.

Or they would melt. But hopefully the first.

The crowd mellowed out, but the ring was maintained more or less, even as those who won or lost picked up or discarded the money they put in the pot. "Can you tell me what you did wrong?" Yugito started out.

Naruto sighed. "I didn't dodge and tried to take you out in one go?"

She dipped her head down slightly. "Mmmm… Maybe for the other times, but not this one."

"What?" he asked. The spar had gone like the few others before it: a minute or two of Naruto trying out her fighting style before he got frustrated with it and charged forward. He had been expecting another version of a lecture he had heard before.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "You did fairly well this time. You timed your dodges, thought out your responses, and planned ahead instead of simply reacting. Your main point of fault in this is your choice of grappling. You will never put me in a hold that I cannot get out of."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Those're fighting words," he said with a smirk, knowing well enough what was coming next.

She smiled in response as well. "So they are. What are you going to do about it?"

He walked out into the middle of the ring. "Oh, I don't know!" he said loud enough that the whole ring could hear. Everyone stopped their chatter and watched with rapt eyes. "I guess I have no choice but to challenge you to a duel!"

A swell of cheers went up as people hurried back into their viewing positions. Everyone sat, stood, or laid with anticipation in their hearts. These were the kinds of people looking for a way to assuage their fears of the current political climate by having fun with some entertainment. And by golly, if it wasn't working.

Yugito stalked proudly up to him and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh Yeah?!" She asked overdramatically, enjoying the fact that she could put up a show. If she were being honest, she would say that she quite liked it when the crowd booed the character she put up. Being a heel was fun.

"That's right," he said, pointing a finger at her. "I challenge you to our seventh duel!"

A round of cheer.

She stepped back and got back into her fighting position. "Hopefully you'll put up a better showing than the last time!"

A round of boos.

The two of them stalked forward in their own stances, faces mellowed out and back in the world of action-reaction that they trained in. Working the crowd was all well and good, but they were training with reason in mind.

That is, until a brown blur impacted the area in between them and kicked up dust and sand, obscuring everyone's vision for a scant few seconds. The people heard the person's laughter before they saw its form. The voice was deep and cheesy and having way too much fun for its own good.

"A-Ha!" the form said. "Who said anyone could challenge anyone to a duel without my say-so?"

The two fighters lifted their brows in unison. "Fu?" they both asked.

"Nay!" Fu said, putting one hand to her face and one striking straight into the air. "I am the indomitable Hepta Girl, here to put an end to strife and violence!"

Instead of her regular outfit, she had decided to overgrow some exoskeleton over key areas across her body to make her look intimidating in a comic way. Her wings were out and fluttering and there was an extra pair of arms just under her main ones. To cap it all off was a purple masquerade mask 'hiding' her identity from the crowd.

"An end to strife and violence?" Naruto asked, hamming it up immediately as soon as he understood what was happening. "That's what you call this regime? You seek nothing but control through fear! I seek only a world where people are free to do as they please. Where one could challenge another without fearing the shadow of Hepta Girl!"

"Naïve!" she shouted, pointing a finger to the air in a show of strict defiance. "This was a world meant to be ruled."

Naruto tightened his fighting stance. "Then I suppose there is only one way to settle this!"

Fu's posture remained much the same. She nodded, almost ruefully, and said "Shall we pit our ideals against one another? Show each other who has the greater way of thought?"

Naruto smirked. "I didn't know you could read minds."

"Haha!" she shouted before running at him, two hands forward and two back.

Despite the performance she was putting on, she didn't pull her punches in the slightest. Every jab hit him like a full wind-up and every wind-up hit him like a cart laden with bricks. It was the first time he had sparred with her and was summarily surprised by just how strong she was. Adding the fact that she was working with six appendages (eight including the wings) instead of the standard four, it wasn't a surprise he was quickly overtaken.

He tried to dodge as quick as he could. He tried to parry every move he couldn't dodge. He tried to block every move he couldn't parry. And he got smacked around when he couldn't even block. It was brutal, but he loved every second of it.

Because it was the quintessential Fu that he had gotten to know ever since he met her. She didn't do anything she didn't want to do and she did everything that she did want to do. She was seemingly oblivious to social situations and spoke her mind at every single juncture of their relationship. She didn't pull punches. She confronted him with shit he didn't want to confront. It got annoying at times, but it was ultimately good. Even he saw that.

Yugito, however, wasn't content to leave it at that.

Just as an axe kick was about to fall down on his collarbone, Fu took a hard shin to the hip which might have floored her had she not the ability to hover over the ground. She backed up to see Yugito helping up a bleeding and battered Naruto. "Woman of the Two!" she shouted. "How dare you interrupt our fight?"

"You call that a fight?" Yugito asked. "That was uncalled for! That was about as one-sided as a battle could get. Do you have no honor?"

Fu grinned devilishly. "The weak have no place in this world. It's the rule of the strong."

"But it doesn't have to be!" Yugito shouted. "It can be good for everyone!"

The crowd had gone silent at this point. Yugito's acting was so good that it got a few of them shifting uncomfortably at the sight of it. The children were rapt with attention, mouths agape, while the adults could barely even watch. The performance had suddenly brought up emotions hiding their hearts that they didn't even know were still there. Like the helpless anger that they felt over all the fruitless attacks that happen in the world. Like not knowing what the future held. It brought up long dead aspirations for peace.

"A world of sheep can still be ruled even if only one wolf still exists," Fu said, holding her side in pain. "I will rule that world!"

"Not," Naruto said, holding a hand up and starting to stand tall and proud despite his injuries, "Unless we can defeat you, that is."

Fu smiled wickedly. "You can try."

Naruto looked up to Yugito, a defiant and bold smile on his face. "Stronger together?" he asked.

She took his hand in hers and smiled back at him. "You know it," she said.

The two turned their heads slowly to Fu and slid back into their stances. Without waiting for them to begin, Fu launched forward viciously, both sets of arms forward and enough bluster to overflow from her smaller frame. The two attacked in nearly perfect synchrony against the stronger opponent. Striking and defending and avoiding with an expert flow. Even sparring for such a short time had given them enough time to know each other's way of fighting perfectly and to complement each other's moves.

It wasn't long before Fu felt herself starting to get pushed back. Her fists and feet stopped connecting, she felt knuckles on her cheek and torso more times than she would have liked. Her words may have been performative, but her fight was completely, one hundred percent, dead-on serious. And she wasn't used to her best not being enough.

Naruto and Yugito belted out one final shout as they brought her to her knees by slamming both their heels at different heights on her sternum, kicking her backwards a few feet into a crumpled slump. Nobody said anything for a few seconds until Naruto cracked a smile and looked at Yugito.

It was definitely the smile that got her to react. It wasn't a secret that he smiled a lot, but this one was different, or at the very least different to her. It held within it triumph and admiration and thankfulness and most of all, happiness.

Yes. Happiness. Naruto was the one who was happy despite all the odds stacked against him. He sought out for it like his life depended on it. When others would fail under the weight of reality, he forged ahead and made a new one, a better one, for himself and everyone around him. Yes, it was the happiness and the fact that he would pursue it to the ends of the earth that got her to gravitate to him. It was his individual pursuit of happiness that she would protect no matter what.

So, as the crowd cheered out in a roar of pent up excitement and supreme jubilation, throwing their hands, their hats, their money, their petty trinkets into the air, and nobody could hear anything over the din, Yugito slumped forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing nearly all her weight against him. And, before she knew it, she was smiling too. Not because of triumph or admiration or thankfulness. She was smiling because she was happy.

Naruto wrapped his own arms around her and tried to lift her up in the air to spin her around, but his legs were too battered, and all he managed to do was to bring the both of them down to the dusty floor. He laughed at his own failure, but stopped when he realized she wasn't. She was just… smiling as she looked into his eyes. They were bright and beautiful and full of life. And then he couldn't hear anything, neither of them could. Not because of the noise, but because the noise didn't matter anymore.

He could feel her breath on his lips. He could see her eyes as they looked into his. He could feel the sweat from their fight still running down her temples as they dripped onto his cheeks. And then he stopped thinking and started feeling.

And then the feelings turned bad.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to dwell on it for too long as Fu gurgled from her position and tried to stand up, but slipped and fell back onto the floor. The crowd quieted down and looked at her in a hush, giving Naruto a reason to break eye contact and for Yugito to feel foolish and embarrassed. She got off of him quickly, her face redder than it had been even after a trying bout of physical exercise. Naruto got up too, quashing the feelings he had in his stomach down for the sake of the narrative they had going on.

He walked up to Fu and knelt down. Knowing that their kicks didn't have the power to seriously debilitate her and that this was for the sake of the crowd, Naruto wasn't too worried for her, so his face was hard as he looked down at the girl. "Do you need a hand?" he asked.

"Do not!" she started out heavily, but lost her steam quickly. "D-Do not… do not patronize me," she said, breaking eye contact for favor the ground.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Naruto said, "But everyone needs a helping hand every now and then. You're not excluded."

He held out a hand, which she looked at for a few seconds. Her face held firm, but it eventually broke, literally. The mask on her face splintered and fell off in big chunks and small pieces, showing underneath a somewhat vulnerable and scared girl. "I…" she said quietly, but just loud enough for the deathly quiet crowd to hear, "I just… I just didn't want you to get hurt," she said powerlessly.

Naruto smiled at her the way a parent would a child. "You can't stop me from getting hurt. You just have to trust that when I do get hurt, I'll learn from it and grow and be a better person at the end of it."

She looked back up at him. "But I hate seeing you hurt. Seeing you hurt makes me hurt."

Not waiting for her to grab his hand herself, he reached down and took her own with his. "Then we'll hurt together. And we'll learn together. And we'll grow together."

She got back up to her own two feet as the exoskeletal parts of her get-up fell away bit by bit, leaving her back in her regular outfit. "Do you promise that?" Fu asked.

Naruto looked confused. "Promise what?"

"That we'll be together?"

He smiled. "I promise," he said lowly.

Her hands reached up and wrapped around the back of his head, bringing him down a little bit. "Then let's start right now," she said huskily, shooting forward, and crashing her lips against his.

His eyes widened, but he did not pull away. He unsurely pulled her closer as she got on her tiptoes to go deeper.

As they pulled apart, the crowd let out a collective sigh of catharsis. It was a play that came out of nowhere full of action, thrills, out-of-nowhere comebacks, and just a smidgeon of romance at the end of it all.

But Naruto didn't feel good. His stomach was flipping up and down and doing summersaults and he was smiling when he didn't want to for the crowd. That kiss didn't feel good. He needed desperately to talk, but he didn't even know if his voice existed anymore.

Yugito watched him from the sidelines, a frown marring her face. It was an ugly smile he wore. She was surprised she was the only one seeing it.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked, putting a hand on the older woman's shoulder.

She shook her head and put her face in the palm of her hand. "No, of course not. I… was stupid for a second there. I let my feelings get the better of me and it hurt him."

Sakura blinked a couple of times. "I was talking about your injuries," she said.

Unknown to the two of them, Yugito was feeling much the same Naruto was. It was like she had swallowed liquid lead and it had hardened in her stomach. She felt heavier and yet more fragile at the same time. She knew she fucked up, but she didn't know how she did. It was one thing to be hurt; it was a whole different thing to be hurt and not fully know why.

Yugito sighed and nodded, letting Sakura do her work on her body, healing the scant few injuries she had accrued. All through it, Sakura had become slightly more somber. "He's smiling again, isn't he?"

Naruto was still waving at the crowd, returning a smile at the jubilation they projected onto him. Their performance was something no one had ever seen before and they wanted nothing more than to speak to the two stars who made it what it was.

Yugito nodded. "Yes."

Sakura sighed. "I hate it when he does that."

Yugito looked at Sakura curiously. "You can… see it?" she asked, not fully knowing how to verbalize her question.

The medic stood up and looked at him disapprovingly. "I've been his teammate for a while. I can tell when his smiles are real and when they're fake. And right now, he looks like he's in pain."

Sakura shook her head and looked up at Yugito. "I know that right now, I can't help him as much I wish I could. In fact, I don't think I ever could. But… when he's with you, all of you," she said in reference to the rest of the harem, "His smiles look real. Like when he was with Sasuke."

Yugito looked back to Naruto. Fu had grabbed his hand exuberantly and was in the process of dragging him away, probably to spend time with him, so Yugito could only see the back of his head as he vanished into the crowd. "That name… sounds familiar," she muttered.

"He was our teammate, but he defected a few years ago. We don't know where he is right now. Naruto… he promised to bring him back, but he failed, and I just know he blames himself for it. His smiles never looked right after that. And then you five came along," Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm not keyed into your group dynamic, so maybe I'm intruding where I shouldn't be, but… please look after him. He's important to me and a lot of other people too."

Yugito looked at the ground, feeling much the same as the dirt that covered it. "I… I will," she said resolutely. "I'll look after him."

Sakura smiled. "Thanks."

00000000

"Where are you taking me?" Naruto finally asked after ducking through one too many arches behind Fu.

"Away," she said without looking behind her. "It was nice being the center of attention, but I like the quiet a bit more."

"So you're just leading us around to nowhere?"

"Shush! I have a place in mind for us."

Naruto's mouth clacked shut and allowed Fu to take the lead. Not talking gave him time to think, which he wanted to do. The problem with him thinking was that his thoughts were so jumbled that he couldn't even focus on one topic before another one came crashing through that drew his attention away. Did Fu like him? Did Yugito like him? Did Kurotsuchi like him? Did he like them back if they did? Did Temari tell the truth when she said she would allow him to be with them as well? Maybe she just wanted him to feel good. Why did he feel bad? Was it guilt? And if it was guilt, what, exactly, was it about?

He hadn't traveled very far in his mental faculties by the time they stopped. It was so stupefying to him, that he was honestly confused when he realized he was on the wall that bordered the village near a small outcropping big enough for two people to be under so the sun wouldn't reach them. She tugged him over and shade enveloped them. She sat down and he followed. She was smiling, but he wasn't. Why wasn't his voice working?

Fu didn't have to look at him to realize the turmoil he was in. She felt it in the kiss. The only reason he went on with it was because of the crowd and the impromptu show they were putting on. As soon as her lips touched his, he drew back, both emotionally and physically. She'd hurt him, or, he was just sorting things out. She couldn't tell.

"Hey Naruto?" she asked.

"Yeah?" he mumbled.

"Do you want to know why I have so much control over Chomei's chakra?"

Naruto blinked in surprise, drawing him out of his own head to look down at Fu. This wasn't the topic he was expecting to be breached by her. "Uhm… yeah, I guess."

Fu leaned on his shoulder as she began to speak. "I'm an orphan, which you could probably guess already. Didn't know my parents, got a bug sealed in by back, was hated by the village; you know, pretty normal story as far as Jinchuuriki go, as far as I'm aware. And I was… so angry. All the time. I would get into fights constantly. I remembered crying myself to sleep when everything got too much to handle, but I would always steel my face whenever I went back to school. I was belligerent and rude because that's how everyone was to me. At any point in time back then, I was bruised and cut up in some way or another.

"It got so bad that at one point, I accidentally accessed Chomei's chakra. I almost hurt people. Well, I did, but no one got hurt really bad. Anyway, there was almost a riot about me staying the village with everyone. It was pretty obvious I wasn't stable. I could go off again and there might not be anyone there to stop me next time. And the thing is, I was there, next to the village head, as people, one after another, would come up and demand I get sent away, some were completely fine, others with fresh bandages.

"And… as they came, yelled, and went, I realized something of vital importance. I realized that I couldn't care less about any one of them. They weren't my people. They weren't my friends or family. They were just the people I was born near. I didn't feel anything for them. I didn't care that I hurt them. And I didn't care that they had hurt me. Because… because they didn't mean anything to me. And then I felt so light. Like I could fly into the air if I flapped my arms hard enough. And then I wasn't angry anymore. I didn't let what other people thought about me stop me from doing what I wanted to do. And they got angry. And they got annoyed and pissed, but I was fine. I was happy because I could finally do what I wanted to do.

"You know, people always say that only the love from another person can heal a broken heart, but the thing that healed me was the idea that I didn't need people to love me. I just needed me. And I was okay with that. I didn't lose control again. In fact, I gained control. That chakra, it feeds on malice and grows out of control. I could make it do whatever I wanted it to do because it wasn't _it_ anymore. It was me. And I liked me. I still do. Now, I do whatever I want to do and say whatever I want to say because I absolutely refuse to regret anything. Even if something ends up bad, I can at least look back on it and say 'At the time, I thought it was the right thing to say or do'."

Fu stopped to look at him in the eyes. "I think I'm selfish. But I think that's an okay thing to be. I think it's okay to put yourself ahead of others," she shrugged and looked back to the endless sandy sea. "I don't know. In actuality, I might be a terrible person. But I'm happy. There aren't many people that can say that."

Naruto looked down to her, his deep thought only producing one question. "Why did you kiss me?" he asked.

"Because I wanted to," she said. "And the reason I'm around you is because I like being around you. And I want to do it. I like being around everyone, in fact."

"But… _why_ did you kiss me? _Why_ do you like being around me?"

"Because I like you."

A heavy silence hung over them for a few seconds as they both digested those words.

"It's uhmm…" she fumbled with her words. "I… I think love's a strong word that should only be used in the right situations. So, I'm not going to use it here. But… I think about you a lot. And I worry about you when you get hurt or when you're sad. And I liked kissing you. So, yeah. There."

"I'm," Naruto started out before closing his eyes and lowering his head. "I don't know how I feel."

"You don't?" she asked.

He looked back to her with one of his eyebrows cocked. "Well, yeah, of course I don't."

"How can you not know how you feel?"

Naruto blinked and looked away, shaking his head a little bit. "Because… You can't… Look, a lot things are happening right now."

"That's…" she paused to shake her head and lightly smile at him, like he was trying to say something commonly held to be untrue. "That doesn't excuse anything. Like, don't you have the ability to self-reflect?"

"Of course I do!" he said, crossing his arms over his stomach. "If I fail, I try something else until I succeed. I don't just keep repeating my errors."

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I mean… Okay, for example: how do you feel about me?"

He paused a few seconds before shaking his head. "Erm… You're generally nice."

"Okay," she nodded. "What else?"

He sighed and looked away. "You're short. But you're… you're pretty. And you're loud and boisterous. You speak your mind and you're not afraid to get yelled at or insulted in the process. You're super strong too. I didn't know that. And you're full of energy and always willing to try new things. You always give everyone the benefit of the doubt, even if they give a bad first impression. But you also don't know when to stop. You get on peoples' nerves because you keep on digging up stuff they want to stay buried."

She smiled. "So you do know how you feel."

"It's not-"

Fu pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't say it's not that simple. I hate it when people think feelings are the most complex things in the world. They're not. In most cases, they work on a binary tract. So, with everything that I am that you've seen so far. With everything that I've shown and done and said, do you… like me? And not, in like, the friendly way," she quickly added. "Are you… interested in me?"

Though his body pressed him to look away from her eyes to anything else available, he didn't. Those orange eyes of her kept his in place, like they were physically grabbing his. They were so commanding of attention, that to look away was unthinkable. "I… I do," he said.

She smiled in an almost relieved way. She had always been in charge of their interactions such to the point that the realization that she didn't know the outcome of their conversation made him feel better. It had always seemed to him that everybody oversaw everything around him except for him. To know that he was the one who had full leverage over his emotional state… well, it was uplifting.

He blinked. Once, twice, three times. "I, I do like you. I _am_ interested in you. But I'm scared because of that fact," he said loudly, like he was just realizing it. "Well, I knew that before, but I didn't like it. It's… it's okay that I'm scared, right? Because that's the normal thing to be, right?"

Fu chuckled a little bit. "In your situation, I'd say so."

"I'm…" he smiled. "I'm a fucking nervous wreck about this. I feel," he clutched his chest. "Sooo guilty about this. Like I'm fucking scum. Because, you know, only scum do that sort of thing. Only scum love multiple people at the same time. I feel like I'm doing bad by Temari because I think I love her. And I think I'm doing bad by you because I'm with someone else romantically."

"Okay," she said, a big smile coming across her features. "What else?"

He grabbed his head. "I feel like I fail at everything I do. I failed to bring Sasuke, my teammate, back from Orochimaru. I failed to save Gaara. I failed to protect the ones I hold dearest. And… And… and why?"

"Why what?"

He looked back to her, eyes squinted. "Why do you like me?" he asked. "It's something I still don't get. You and Temari… I'm not- I'm not anything good."

"Narut-"

"No! It's true. I'm not good at reading social cues. I'm stupid. I'm not strong, or at least not strong enough to stand toe to toe with the Akatsuki. And _everyone_ else around me is. I'm useless-"

"Shut up!"

Naruto blinked a few times. He hadn't realized that her eyes were set ablaze with fury and that her jaw was screwed tight, the muscles along her face clenching and unclenching rapidly. "If I wanted an invitation to a pity party, I would have… I would have… argh, I can't think of a punchline right now. Point is, there are things I like about you and you saying that they don't exist or that they're overshadowed by your bad points is like… it's like saying I've got bad judgement."

"Wait, what? I'm not following you."

Fu sighed and collected her thoughts. "Do you think I've got good judgement?"

He nodded slowly, starting to get an idea of where this was going.

"So, if I have good judgement and I judge you to be a person worthy of my respect and interest, doesn't that lead credence to the idea that you are?"

"Then… then what are they? What are my good points?"

"Can you not even think of any?"

He crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. "I want to hear them from you."

Fu closed her eyes and leaned back against the coarse sandstone. "You're funny, for one. You like to have fun. You play pranks and you aren't sour when they're turned back on you. You have more determination than anyone I've ever met. You're not bad to look at either," Fu said with a nearly lecherous smirk, causing Naruto to blush. "You're always trying your hardest. And you _care_. You honestly, without a doubt _care_."

"Care about what?"

"Everything!" Fu almost shouted. "Things are… they're important to you in ways that they aren't to me. You care about my feelings, something which most people haven't in my life. You care about the people you're around. You care about your dreams. You care about even the people who wronged you. You care so, so much that… that it was impossible for me not to come around to you almost immediately."

Fu let that hang there in the air. For a few minutes, neither said anything and just let silence its turn to speak. They gazed out into the distant nothing, where blue met yellow and not a cloud was in the sky. They let their emotions a break for the moment and let tranquility reign over their life for the minutes that it could.

"Thanks," Naruto finally said. He took a breath of air in like he was going to talk some more, but couldn't find the words to express his gratitude. Instead, he reached out his arm and pulled her over to him.

"You're welcome," she said contently, leaning on his chest and closing her eyes. It was a nice chest. She liked putting her head against it. Even past his clothes, she could hear the muffled thump of his heart.

Even when the silence was done with, they talked some more. Some topics were heavy and some were light. Some provoked a laugh and others a tear or two. But they were all real.

They just enjoyed each other's company for the next couple of hours.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Kurotsuchi briefly let her heart swell at the sight of all the people crowding down below the streets to get a view of the official announcement. At that time, only the highest-ranking shinobi knew about the announcement and had let it slip to the populace slightly, but not enough time had transpired for it to reach the entire population. So, she had a front row seat in watching the emotion of the people transform throughout the speech. The civilians, shinobi, men, women, children, protractors for peace, detractors for peace; she got to see how their faces changed to the new information provided for them.

A new kage, the sister of the previous one. A contract that settled peace between all five major nations and the minor ones as well. A polyamorous marriage that kept it all wrapped up, one which the new kage was a part of.

Kurotsuchi wasn't aware of which tidbit of information got the most confusion from the people: the idea of peace, or that it would be tied to a six-way marriage.

But, at the end of it, there wasn't a riot at the very least. Yelling for answers to their myriad questions, yes, but nothing belligerent, which she was grateful for. She had the idea that the village hidden in leaves was a little bit more understanding, having a more optimistic attitude than the others. And so, at the sight of the faces of the people, their skin and emotions both equally weathered, Kurotsuchi had let fear enter her heart.

Jiraiya clapped his hands and the top of the kage building erupted in smoke, jolting Kurotsuchi out of her thoughts. She body flickered back in the building as soon as she could and stumbled next to her grandfather, looking at the tall and imposing stature of Jiraiya behind the desk, next to Temari, who was doing her own attempt at an imposing pose.

And damnit if it didn't look imposing.

Kurotsuchi bit her lip and stepped back a few feet, firmly in the very back of the room. Jiraiya was talking, but she wasn't listening, not anymore. She took a few more steps back and felt the handle of the door with her hand, grasping it firmly, and was about to pull back when a more feminine voice cut it.

"And I would like to thank you all," Temari said, her voice deep and full of pride. She spoke like an entirely different person when she was in 'kage-mode', when she was talking to people who weren't her friends.

Wait, friends? Were they friends? Kurotsuchi didn't like the girl, but there wasn't a sheer, unassailable malice in her heart towards her. It was more akin to a grudge at that point. Sure, she didn't like that she fucked Naruto, but it wasn't like she staked a claim. While she was whiling away at how she felt, he got taken by someone else.

Temari was still talking. Something about how the change in her title shouldn't necessitate a change in relationship, or something. She wasn't really listening. What captured her attention was Fu, who was decidedly also not paying attention. The girl busied her time with staring at Naruto with half-lidded eyes. The girl wore her emotions on her sleeve, Kurotsuchi had to give at least that much credit, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

Well, Naruto might have had a technical harem a few weeks ago, but he had an official harem now.

And with that sullen and depraved thought, Kurotsuchi tugged the door so it made no noise and slipped outside for some time alone. Most of her days had been spent trying to avoid Naruto by hanging out with everyone else even tangentially related to him. His teammate, master, teacher, Mei, Fu, Yugito, hell even Ai, Shibuki, and her grandfather.

She could tell that they knew what was happening with her mind frame, but they never brought anything up, which she was grateful for. They spent time doing nothing much at all: tours, food, interesting people, the like. Turns out, none of them had been to the hidden village of sand for anything other than to try to conduct a raid on it, so ingratiating with the culture was a little bit nice for everyone involved.

But now, she wanted silence. And she was given that silence as she plodded through the stark hallway leading to the stairs leading to the hallway leading to the exit leading to outside. It was hot, dry, and bright out, but that much was what she expected. Everyone outside was still in the process of dispersing and she attempted to do the same.

The sand crunched under her feet as she stared at everything. The sky, the ground, people walking to and fro, children playing with balls, shop stalls, residences, everything had a purpose to its step.

And what was she doing?

She was still musing that question when she hopped up on the wall looking out to the desert and sat down. A guard or two recognized her, but didn't approach. Diplomatic protection and all that.

She looked out at where the yellow sand met the blue sky at the horizon. All the birds in the sky, all the insects in the ground, even the forces of nature all moved with purpose. And she felt like she didn't. Like she was just riding on a wave going somewhere she didn't know at a slow and leisurely pace.

And then someone sat next to her. "It is pretty in a sort of way," Mei mused. "But I don't think I could look at it for very long without going crazy."

Kurotsuchi blinked and looked at the older woman. "Why are you doing this?" she asked suddenly and maybe with too much venom.

Mei gave a matronly smile. "I noticed you slipped out and went to investigate where you were going. You looked like you needed someone to talk to."

Kurotsuchi shook her head. "That's not what I meant. Why are you… doing _this_?"

Mei's face fell slightly and returned her view to the desert. "A few different reasons, I suppose. World peace is a big one. My country is still recovering from a war and we need all the help we can get. And help without the possibility of a knife in the back is always welcome. And… I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I was never any good at maintaining a relationship. It always fell apart at one point or another and I guess I thought the idea of an arranged marriage to another country's royalty was always romantic to me."

Kurotsuchi's eyebrows went up slightly. "Really robbing the cradle with that one."

Mei put her hands to her hips and maintained an indignant attitude. "Okay, okay, okay now. It was a passing thought before I found out his age. The previous reasons reign supreme. Anyway, why the curiosity?"

Kurotsuchi couldn't find the right words for a little bit. She knew how she was feeling, but how could she put those feelings to words? She couldn't. It was impossible. "It's just… when I see everyone, they're all looking at something that isn't there yet, you know? Like, the future, or something. They're walking forward and they know where they're going and they want to go there and they look forward to what they'll find when they reach there, but I'm… but… I'm…"

"You don't care."

It was declarative, not accusatory. Kurotsuchi's face turned to meet Mei's, whose face had grown somber. "It's okay," she continued on. "You're young and the world is changing. When you don't even know which way is forward, it's hard to take a step without knowing you want to."

Kurotsuchi's arms settled over her stomach. "So, you do?"

Mei nodded. "During the war… at times, nothing seemed to be changing. Both sides bled, both sides grieved and angered, and both sides thought they were the right one. And, at one point, I woke up from a bad dream with a thought on my mind. 'If someone with an unbiased perspective looked at this fight, would they see me as the righteous one?'. That thought… that… that feeling, it debilitates you. And no, maybe it's not to the same intensity as mine was, but you have to figure out what's right to you. And then you need to do it."

Kurotsuchi's face fell into her hands. "But I don't know what I want to do."

"Well, what did you want to do before you came here?"

"I wanted to be a good kunoichi. Make my dad proud, my grandad proud, kill a few leaf nin. Retire, hopefully. Probably no kids. I'd make a shit mom. And then… I don't know. While away time complaining about shit that I have no intention of changing."

"How self-reflective of you."

Kurotsuchi returned a blank stare. "I was joking," she looked away. "I don't know. I've never really thought about the future. I just… let things happen. And now I'm here."

"Do you like it?" she asked.

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "Kinda hot for my tastes."

"If you're not going to take this seriously-"

"Oh, lighten up a little bit," Kurotsuchi said with a bit of a scowl. "I don't know," she conceded. "Could be worse, I guess. I'm not a POW in an enemy state. That's always a plus. The people around me are nice. World peace is good. Have to worry about the Akatsuki; not too thrilled about that. And…"

"Naruto?"

She crossed her arms over her knees and brooded towards the horizon line. "I'm not much for sharing, thank you very much."

"But you still like him?"

Her head slipped down until her forehead was cradled by arms. "Yeah," she Said, muffled by her own appendages. "I like him."

"I hear the roster still has a few open slots available," Mei said as enticingly as she could.

Kurotsuchi grimaced and looked at the older woman. "I think I did just say that I wasn't the sharing type," she nested her chin back in her arms. "What about you, anyway?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"What about me?"

"How do _you_ feel about him?"

Mei considered the question for a very long time with a neutral face, gazing at the expansive and endless desert. It was a face that Kurotsuchi had never quite seen before. It was contemplative and serious. The woman turned her head to look at Kurotsuchi in the eyes before morphing into a joyous and mischievous one. "That's a secret," she said, putting her index finger to her lower lip.

Kurotsuchi squinted her eyes at her. "I think I fucking hate you."

Mei shrugged and reclined back, seeming to bask in the heat. "How do you think I feel? He's a nice kid and all, with a sweet face, a good body… endless enthusiasm… an insatiable desire to impress… uhh… what were we talking about?"

"About how you should wipe the drool from your lips."

"Which lips are we talking about here?"

It took Kurotsuchi a few seconds to understand the lewd joke and a few more to verbalize her disapproval with the woman. "J-Jeezuz, aren't you the one who told me to take our little 'chat' seriously?"

"You can't expect me to maintain a serious aura for more than five minutes, can you? It's not in my personality. And to answer your previous question seriously, I would have to say that he's a nice boy. He's not quite mature enough for my tastes, but he might get there. Or he might not. The future's uncertain."

"And if he does get there?" Kurotsuchi asked.

With a finger to her lip and a mischievous smirk, Mei replied "That's a secret."

Kurotsuchi sighed and laid back to look up at the sun as a change of scenery. "I don't get how you could share someone you love."

"Do we not do so all the time?"

Kurotsuchi shielded her eyes from the sun. "Oh, could you please not go on about some sort of vague and cockamamie explanation as to why I should be okay with my theoretical boyfriend fucking other chicks? Why does everyone have to have all these weird and convoluted ideas of what love is? Can't it be simple? Can't it just be how most people view it?"

"Everyone has multitudes, Kurotsuchi. It's not something you can run from."

The girl in question rolled over to her stomach. "Try me."

00000000

The air was thick with the stench of volcanic fumes and burnt hair. It was cloggingly so, especially for Kisame's powerful sense of smell. He daren't complain, however, especially not in the presence of the zombie in red armor and… well, whoever the hell Tobi was.

He reached down and picked the old man up by the back of his jacket and hoisted him onto his shoulders. The Jinchuuriki of the five-tails. Might've been difficult to take down given his vast combat experience and seemingly fair relationship with his beast, but not with those two on his team. No, it was completely one-sided. It took all of thirty seconds and it only took that long because they were toying with him.

Kisame was good at looking at himself with a third-person perspective; he knew his limitations and what he could do. And he was damn impressive, if he dare say so. Standing next to those two made him feel like a child. No, worse than a child.

A pack mule.

"Where to next?" Kisame asked.

"The land of Hot Springs," Madara said in a clipped voice, eyes focused on the horizon. Tobi next to him nodded his head ever so slightly.

Kisame felt his brow shift. "Hot Springs? That's a skip across the continent. How is there not a hideout closer?"

Madara turned to him and he felt his already cold blood get even chillier. The gaze wasn't hostile, it was just looking through him. Like his sole existence was to carry an old man who was about to die.

And it sort of was, at the moment.

"We aren't going to the nearest hideout. We're going to the four-tails. Then the six-tails."

Kisame waited a beat for him to continue on, but nothing came after that. "We're going… right now?"

Madara sighed. "Yes, we're going right now."

Hearing that, Tobi walked forward and grasped both of their shoulders at the same time.

Then reality distorted.

00000000

Naruto stood at the gates of the village hidden in sand with his hands on his hips and a happy sigh on his breath. Much had happened in the time that he spent there. So much so that it was almost incomprehensible that it was only a few days. It was, however, over with. And with a new road to take and a smattering of cheering citizens to send their party off, Naruto was faced with a new adventure.

And more walking, which he felt in the form of a painful jab to the ribs and a forceful "Come on!"

He turned around with an apologetic, yet happy-go-lucky, grin on his face and was halfway through muttering "Sorry Sakura-chan" on instinct before he realized it wasn't a girl with pink hair that nudged him but one with black hair, who looked back at him confusedly.

"What?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing Kurotsuchi," he said, sobering up his personality slightly. He'd only gotten frosty readings from her ever since he landed in sand with the rest of them, which, to be honest, was somewhat warranted. But he never knew how to breach a subject between them. It might have been much better if she exploded at him in a flurry of emotion, because then at least he'd know where their relationship was. But she couldn't do that either, at least not in good conscience. Irascible she may be, foolish she was not.

And yet, that clipped "Nothing Kurotsuchi," as his gaze shifted to the left and his attitude fell down a few notches brought her mood down right with it. She still liked him. Hell, it might even be love. She just didn't like the fact that he was fucking Temari and maybe Fu.

The motley caravan had already proceeded a fair bit ahead of them to let Naruto wave behind them and for Kurotsuchi to drag him back when he took too long, so it was just the two of them for a little bit. "Hey Naruto," she asked on instinct, before she could stop herself. "What is it that you want to do?"

He looked at her like she was speaking in tongues. "Huh?"

"You know, why is it that you're… still… walking forward?"

He breathed out a heavy sigh and took a while to answer. "Well, first, I want to become Hokage."

"You've told me that."

"So I have. And, to do that, I have to treat everyone in the village like they're family to me. And I have to protect my family and my friends. And… have I told you about Sasuke?"

"In brief."

"Well, he's my best friend. We were on a team together for a while until he… defected. It's a bit of a story so I won't go on about it, but he basically chose revenge over me and Sakura and Kakashi and just about everyone else who loved him. So, until I drag him right back until he's with us, I can't say that I've protected my family and friends. And if I can't do that, then I can't become Hokage."

For a few seconds, the only sound that came between them was the sound of sand grains crunching underneath their feet. "But that…" Kurotsuchi started in brief. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Huh?" he asked.

"That's like, I'm sorry to say this, but it's naïve. Your friend betrayed you and everyone you love and you're still going after him?"

He shrugged uncertainly. "Uh, yeah. Of course I am. He's my best friend."

She put her hand to her temple. "I don't get you. You're like a fount of unceasing happiness and optimism. He treated you like dirt. He almost killed you. He ran away from everyone! And you're still going after him? That's not noble or loyal or good. That's foolish."

A dour silence grew between them. "You talked to Sakura?" he asked, voice low and eyes half-lidded.

She nodded, looking ahead of them and wishing she didn't talk.

He sighed and stared at the ground. "I know that, okay? He was always an ass to me. And I was an ass to him, but… But that was because we were the only people who could understand each other. I was alone for so long and he was too. We're connected, you know. I'm going to bring him back, no matter what it takes."

She shook her head. "And what if he tries to kill you again? Or your friends? Your village? The entire fucking world?"

"I'll be there to stop him," he said in a way that almost seemed to cause physical pain. "I'm not getting strong for nothing. I'm not training myself every day until I can barely walk just for the looks. This all," he said, gesturing to the caravan ahead of them. "As soon as it ends, I'm going to find Orochimaru, get Sasuke, and drag him back to the village."

"It can't be that simple. He's not going to accept you back with open arms."

"How do you know? You don't know anything about me!"

Before he could take back his words, something floored him. Rather than looking hurt or angry, Kurotsuchi was simply smirking. "I think I know more than you give me credit for. I… I care about you. I really do, you have to believe that. But… just think about it some more, okay?"

His mouth scrunched up. "I _have_ thought about. For a very long time. I know I'm not that smart, but I know what's right and what's wrong. I just… I know that he isn't a bad guy. I _know_ it. I just need to talk to him. Get him to understand what he tried to throw away. Get him to understand that revenge only gets you more hurt in the end."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms over her chest. "I know that you're all about not cutting the bonds that you've cultivated, but sometimes people change. Relationships change. Everything changes; that's the whole point of being alive. It's to change yourself. Sometimes you have to cut bonds."

He seemed to dwell on those words for a little bit. "I wouldn't give up on you," he said.

She gulped and looked away, a slight red dusting her cheeks. "Thanks," she mumbled. "But it'd be a pain if I didn't like you anymore and you didn't leave me alone."

"Maybe," he acquiesced. "But that's not going to happen."

She had to look away and at the sand. Why did his words make her so happy? "Is… is that it?" she asked. "Anything else you want to do? Other than becoming Hokage?"

Another pause. "Well, no. I also like to do my normal things. Eating ramen, hanging out with friends, that sort of thing. And uhm…" his face colored red. "You."

Her eyebrows lifted up slightly. His last word hung in the air for a few seconds longer than he would have wished. He was about to backtrack when she giggled a little bit into her hand. "Smooth," she said. "Real smooth."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Yugito didn't like the look that Mei was giving her. That ever-present smile that could hide pain and pleasure at equal percentages and eyes that just begged to be asked a question. And Yugito, for her point, felt like she was holding her own quite well. It only took her twenty minutes this time for her to break down and confront Mei, up nearly ten minutes since the last time she tried.

It also didn't help that she didn't know who would win between the two of them if they fought seriously. It was something that Yugito didn't have to worry about too often about since a while ago. She used to be a big fish with a bunch of largish, medium, and small fish around her. Now, she was a big fish with other big fish around.

"Yes?" Yugito asked with her palm on her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about~" Mei said, stretching her sentence out.

The cat woman readjusted her head shawl. Wind was picking up sand particles that cut through the skin like a knife through butter. It was mostly just irritating, but they all were wearing face protection anyways.

"Why have you been giving me that look?" Yugito asked quickly and with a little bit of a hiss.

"What look?"

It was this point that Yugito lengthened her nails until they were long and sharp enough to cut someone in half if she really tried at it. She hoped it to be a sign of her lack of patience towards the woman and not an actual call to action. And for the woman's credit, her eyes opened and she smiled knowingly.

"I'm just wondering," Mei said "What could have happened that eroded the patience of the ever stalwart Yugito Nii?"

"You, mostly."

Mei turned her head to the young, strapping lad getting blown about the desert by what appeared to be a demon cloaked in wind and sand, with the only indication of humanity about it being a giant wind fan. He would get to his knees and hold his hands up, as if to guard himself, only to get blown away by a giant gust of wind every time. It was comical the first hundred times or so. Now, it was just background noise. "Or maybe its thoughts swirling around your head about a certain handsome, young stud flying around here?"

Yugito closed her eyes and pushed her head forward against the wind she, and everyone else sans Naruto and Temari, were walking against. Trying to get an angle where she could both see, and face forward at the same time was getting to be too tiresome. And more to the point, she didn't want to look at the woman egging her on. "Don't try to reflect your lascivious nature onto me. If you want a round in the sack, just ask him."

"If it were that easy, I'm sure you would have done just that more times than I have fingers or toes."

The cat woman just sighed. "If you want a no-holds barred fight to the death, you only have to ask nicely."

"Is there something that I've intonated that you would find disagreeable enough-"

"Shut up!" Yugito growled out, letting some of Matatabi's chakra leak into her eyes for effect. "Just… say what you have to say. The quicker you do, the quicker we got on with our lives."

Mei crossed her arms over her chest. "You're not fun."

"And you have the mentality of a child."

Mei shrugged. "You want him."

"You're going to have to elaborate on that."

"You don't deny it?"

"I don't deny anything that I don't have a firm enough grasp on. If you want me to deny or support something, you're going to have to word it in a way that I can comprehend."

"You comprehended me just well enough."

"You give me too much credit."

It was Mei's turn to sigh. She didn't think it would take this long to get through to the woman. "If you want me to go into details, then fine. You want him to hold only to you tightly as he plunges his thick prick into your waiting and welcoming cunny. You want him to tell you it's going to be alright and to assuage all the fears you've been having in the back of your mind ever since you can remember. You want him to hold your hand as you walk through the streets of your home country and to show him off to anyone who might have said anything ill unto you in the past. You want him to be with you forever. You want him."

Yugito nodded at each and every suggestion, rolling them around in her mind and giving them equal consideration. Finally, she opened her mouth to say "Huh… I knew you were slutty, but I didn't think you were certifiable as well."

"Harsh words."

"Accurate too."

Mei smirked. "I think I like you."

"Can't say the sentiment is shared."

Before Mei could retort, there was a bit of a wild yelp from behind them as Naruto jumped up and down, arms in the air. In front of him were twin trenches about five feet long with his feet buried at the end of them. Evidently, he didn't go flying through the air like he had been before and had just been pushed, keeping his feet planted. He didn't have long to celebrate as Temari was back in action like nothing had happened, reeling him back into his training and sending him flying through the air with a particularly powerful gust of wind.

Mei turned back around, her amusement peaking. "You have a crush on him, is what I'm trying to say- and don't try to deny it. I can see it in your eyes. You think you're a steel trap for your feelings, but you aren't."

Yugito bit the inside of her cheek. "I don't harbor crushes. They aren't healthy for anyone involved. I will admit to a passing interest, but that's all it is. I'm far too old for him."

"No, you're not," Mei said, this time with an almost harsh tone. "You're both young, and horny, and maybe in love. Christ, from what I can tell, it's not like you had much of an adolescence anyway. You might as well make up for lost time."

Yugito snarled and whipped around, sending a puff of sand up in the air. The wind carried it and sent it flying towards Mei, who covered her face with her arms. Not seeing anything, she didn't expect a finger poking her in the chest by an irate cat woman. "Don't," She pressed out. "Speak as if you know me. As if you know my childhood, adolescence, adulthood, or anything in between. Don't speak as if you know my feelings and inner machinations. Don't assume shit. And I would kindly appreciate it if you wouldn't talk to me. Want me to be up front with my feelings? Okay, I'll start now. I. Don't. Like. You."

Mei, for her part, smiled jubilantly and threw her arms in the air. "Oh, finally. The truth is let free. It's not good to let your feelings bottle up like that. A bottle full of feelings is just begging for some percolation. Hell, you might even blow a lid."

Yugito huffed a few times to catch her breath and shook her head before turning around and stalking off. **"I don't think it would do you very well to brush off a friend your age so casually."**

'Mata…' Yugito caught her head by the bridge of her nose. 'Could you just… not… right now?'

Matatabi resettled into her normal sleeping position. **"Well, what am I good for if not the occasional snippet of wizened advice?"**

Yugito didn't answer, preferring to let her mind wander; much like her feet in the sunny desert sand.

00000000

One was a big man with a mane of white hair that touched the sandy ground, one was a cyclops with equally white hair stuck up and at an angle, and the last was a fairly normal girl with pink hair and a black diamond in the middle of her forehead. Their rapport was mired in deeply personal experiences with each other. Kurotsuchi felt somewhat like a stranger amongst them, which, to be fair, she was. She just didn't like feeling that way.

Turning around, she saw that Mei and Yugito were talking to each other in some way. It was difficult to tell how well it was going because of the shawls, but it seemed cordial enough. Ai, Onoki, and Shibuki were heading the pack while Naruto and Temari were training in something and Fu was… somewhere. Odd how she never seemed to know what that girl was doing.

"What," Kurotsuchi said, interrupting the three's conversation "Are Temari and Naruto doing?"

They looked at the pair and Kakashi cocked his head to the side. "Wind chakra training, I'd say."

Sakura turned around. "How can you tell that?"

Kakashi lazily pointed at them. "He's trying to split apart the gust of wind she's throwing at him with his chakra only. Somewhat a more brute-force method than ours, but I can't say it isn't effective."

Jiraiya belly laughed. "Is that what they're doing? Sacred training ritual my ass; that's just boot camp."

"Maybe there's a second stage that has more finesse to it?" Kakashi offered.

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nah, they're just using what they got. Shit load of wind users. Shit load of wind."

"Wait, what's going on?" Kurotsuchi asked.

Kakashi looked to Jiraiya, who shrugged in return. Reticently, he turned back to Kurotsuchi and said "As the name of the land of fire would suggest, Konoha has a lot of elemental fire users. And a dearth of wind users. So, our training techniques for wind users aren't as… sophisticated as others. Especially not that of the land of wind's Suna. A jonin in our village specializes in wind techniques and it took him years to master it."

Kurotsuchi whistled. "Took me less than a year to master earth. Bit more for fire. Lot longer for lava."

"Elemental manipulation?" Sakura asked "Why haven't I heard that term before?"

Kakashi shrugged. "No real reason you should know. Your fighting style doesn't revolve much around elemental manipulation."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest. "Would've liked the option at least," she said, mock pouting a little bit.

While Sakura was pouting, Jiraiya was too busy grinning to himself. "That's all well and good, but I think we have more pressing concerns to hear about~"

Sakura looked confused and Kakashi groaned a little bit, putting his face in his hand. "Is something important happening?" Sakura asked.

Jiraiya wrapped and arm around Kurotsuchi and leered at her lecherously. "So, what's the guy like in the sack?"

Kurotsuchi's face remained stoic as she elbowed him in the bottom of the ribcage and stomped on his foot. "I…" Her mind paused for half a second while she considered the options available to her. She could either tell the truth about her relationship with her husband, or she could lie for however long it took for them to realize she was lying.

To her, it wasn't really an option.

"I fuck him every night," she said with a shit-eating grin.

00000000

Kakuzu and Hidan looked down at the caravan going from the land of wind to the land of stone. It was a motley assortment of individuals. Probably one that had never been gathered as well as one that will never gather again. If they were more abreast of the elemental nations' politics, they might have cared more over the fact that there was world peace, and that the world peace hinged on a harem marriage, but they didn't, so they don't.

"How many have to die?" Hidan asked.

"One or two," Kakuzu replied, eyes squinted from their hiding place. "Make sure they're women too. Unless it's the two tail or the seven tail. Otherwise, capture them alive."

"What's the goal?"

Kakuzu shrugged. "Don't care. I'm getting paid to do this."

Hidan grimaced. "I'm not usually one to shit and moan about odds, but… doesn't this seem a bit lop-sided."

Kakuzu slowly turned his head to the psychopath and quirked a brow. "Do you have ears?" He took out a scroll and waved it in front of the other man's face. "This guy's the distraction. We're the sword."

Hidan took a step back with his eyebrows raised. "That what I think it is?"

Kakuzu refrained from answering. "Tell me, does using tailed beasts disgrace your gods?"

A great smile threatened to split Hidan's cheeks. "One god, heathen. But I'll let it slide this time."

00000000

Ai, Shibuki, and Onoki were at the head of the caravan on the cart being pushed through the desert by camels. As it turned out, carts were a tad bit difficult to get through sand as they were, so they had to get special wheels that didn't sink through. And also camels.

Camels that really liked to bite people.

Conversation had dried up quickly, especially for Onoki and Ai, who, at all times, did their best not to pick fights with each other. And considering they had been doing the opposite of just that for most of their adult lives, it was somewhat difficult.

As the bare expanse of light blue sky rolled on and as they peered over more and more sand dunes, the only sounds that were made were the sounds of wheels going through sand and the grunting of the beasts of burden.

"It's, erm… the weather's nice, huh?" Ai said after a few minutes of deliberating whether or not to speak up.

Shibuki glared at the much larger man as if he had just admitted to killing his family. "Is it though?"

Onoki nudged the younger man with his knee while chuckling. "Still mad that the camels don't like you?"

His eye twitched a few times. "I'm okay with them not liking me. Hell, they could curse my soul and damn me to an eternity of hell for all I care. I'm just not okay with them biting me every time I try to feed them!"

"Well, that's your problem, now isn't it?" Ai said.

"But WHY?" Shibuki pleaded. "Why are they biting me? And why the hell am I feeding them to begin with?"

"Because they bite," Onoki said.

"That… that doesn't answer my question. Why don't either of you two do it?"

Ai and Onoki looked at each other and then back to him. "Well, we're the heads of the hidden villages of our nations."

"So am I! Village of Waterfalls. Look it up."

Ai and Onoki shared another look. "Is the Village of Waterfalls one of the great five villages?" Onoki asked innocently.

Shibuki flared his nostrils from the stewing anger brewing in his gut. "No," he said through clenched teeth.

"And that's why you feed the camels," Ai said, looking at Onoki with barely concealed laughter. The old man had to stifle a few gouts of laughter as well.

Shibuki crossed his teeth-mark ridden arms over each other. "This sucks," he said. "You two suck."

Ai shrugged. "That's what you get to do when you're the leader of one of the great five. How about instead of bitchin, why don't you try to get on our level?"

Shibuki let his face fall into his hands. "I'm not going to win this, am I?"

They both shook their heads.

"Well, I-"

All three grew deathly quiet and still at the sudden surge of chakra ahead of them. It was huge and out of this world. They had all felt it at one point or another, but none of them could have gotten used to it. Every time they felt it, it spelt pain and death and misery.

The chakra signature of a rampaging tailed beast was not one easily forgotten. And it was directly ahead of them, creating a plume of sand and dust as it thrust itself through the desert.

Onoki floated up in the air while Ai cloaked himself in lightning and flew at the plume heading right toward them. Shibuki jumped from the cart and ran towards the plume as well, blades of water percolating on his arms as he ran. "Wait up!" he shouted after them.

00000000

Naruto and Temari stopped their training as they felt the tidal wave of intense chakra wash over them. Their stomachs sunk and fear grabbed their hearts.

Yugito clenched her fist and Mei returned to her state of silence.

Kakashi, Sakura, Jiraiya, and Kurotsuchi all stopped and blanched at the feeling and sight ahead of them. "Kakashi," Jiraiya ordered, "Keep everyone safe. I smell a trap."

"Wait, what?" Kurotsuchi blustered. "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Enemy attack," Kakashi said as Jiraiya raced off to the battle. "Keep close. We need to consolidate ourselves."

Sakura nodded and punched her fists together, closing her eyes and extending the reach of her senses as far as they could go. Kakashi took out his dog summoning contract and Kurotsuchi started molding lava chakra in her gut.

They got into a triangle and paced around, wary of anything and everything that could be happening around them.

Kakashi turned to Sakura and said "I think-" but was interrupted when a triple headed scythe flew from underground and impaled him in the chest.

As his body sunk to the sand, another one rose up a few meters away with its hand on a coil of rope leading to the scythe's handle. As opposed to screaming in horror, Sakura's only response was to crinkle her nose in disgust and turn towards Hidan.

The man smiled menacingly. "Okay, so here's how it's going to go. I need to kill one of the women, er… girls, in this case. If one of you give up willingly, me and my partner will let the others go."

Sakura huffed. "You're insane for thinking you could get through with this."

One of his eyebrows cocked. "Oh yeah, little girl? Well, you just signed BOTH of your death warrants," he snarled, whipping his scythe towards him.

He took one step forward and then the body impaled on the scythe turned into a log in a puff of smoke, confusing Hidan long enough for a pack of vicious dogs to jump from underneath the sand and bite into him, simultaneously keeping him in place and sinking him into the sand at the same time. Just as he understood he was being held down, a hand cloaked in lightning pierced through the sand and punched a hole in the man's chest. Kakashi ripped his gore ridden hand out of the man's ribcage and walked away, dispelling his dog summons.

Kurotsuchi let a sigh of relief escape from her lips. When she saw the cyclops get stabbed with a scythe, she thought it was all over for everyone involved. What really impressed her was how Sakura managed to keep calm. The girl must have anticipated her teacher had the technique primed and ready, but she couldn't see how.

They ran up to him, Kurotsuchi keeping an eye trained on the dead man's body. "Are you okay?" Kakashi asked to them both.

"Of course we're fine," Sakura said. "We need to go help Jiraiya and the others now."

Kakashi shook his head. "First, we need to round everyone up. There's enough manpower at the tailed beast end of things to hold it off for a while. After that, we either retreat or counter attack based on the enemy's own manpower."

Kurotsuchi felt her hand go to the hilt of her sword. "I thought the Akatsuki were scary boogiemen who destroyed nations. How could you kill one so easily?"

Before Kakashi could answer something along the lines "Even the most powerful of people have met their end at the wrong end of a staircase," Hidan picked himself up and dusted the sand from his cloak, to the amazement of the trio watching him.

"And here I was, planning on getting one up on you." He hefted the giant scythe on his shoulder and cocked a grin at them. "Good trick with the dogs; haven't seen that one anywhere before, but it's not gonna work again. Now, because I'm nice, I'll ask the question again. Which one of you two are gonna die for the other?"

Kurotsuchi drew her sword out of her sheathe and got into her swordsman position, pointing the tip of her blade directly at his torso. "I don't think this is going to be an easy fight."

Hidan's eyebrows went up. "I'll take that as a no, then… Well," He grinned like an animal and hunched forward. "This is the more fun way, anyway."

00000000

Kakuzu grabbed the woman's hand out of the air, her long nails glinting dangerously in the sun. She brought her leg up and was about to kick him in the chest with the intent on skewering him, but he caught her incredibly fast foot at the ankle and stopped its velocity in its tracks. Yugito grinned and whipped her remaining arm around and raked him across the face.

Instead of his head turning into neatly diced deli meats, his head remained solid and stoic, and her nails smarted as if she ran them across stone, or solid metal. She barely had enough time to realize that she was trapped in his embrace before he tugged her in and slammed his forehead against her nose and teeth.

It was like getting kicked in the head by a horse.

When he let go of her, she slumped to the ground, unable to hold herself up and spat out bits of her teeth past the rivulets of blood pouring out of her nose.

The imposing man turned to the remaining female, the Mizukage, and paused. "Are you going to put up a better fight than this one?" he asked.

Mei looked down at the scrambling Yugito and felt her jaw clench against her will. A wildfire of rage was burning up in her gut that she did her best to quell. Deciding to answer at his provocation with action rather than words, Mei launched forward and planted a foot on his chest. Using it as a step, her cheeks puffed up and a jet of super condensed water spewed from her mouth, hitting him in the face and shooting him across the desert sand like a rock skipping across a pond.

Breathing out, she turned to Yugito and helped her up. The blood was already starting to quell and her eyes were getting focused. That healing factor was damn impressive. Even the best of shinobi had trouble getting back up after their faces were hit with a ton of bricks.

"Thplancks," Yugito blubbered through her lips, unable to talk correctly past her missing front teeth.

"Those will grow back, correct?" Mei asked.

"Ythlup," Yugito said after taking a deep breath and facing the Akatsuki member that just stood up from an attack that would destroy a normal man's entire body.

"I'm going to assume that was in the affirmative," Mei said, getting back into her stance.

Kakuzu raced towards the two with his arms behind his back and launched himself into the air, blotting out the sun to the two of them. Yugito quickly did handseals and launched a few fire rats from her mouth, which raced up through the air and hit him in various places, exploding. While she did that, Mei blew out a corrosive mist that drenched the flames, capable of corroding solid concrete.

He flew through the mist with his arms outstretched and would have crushed Mei's face with his iron hands had Yugito not jumped up on and launched a few kicks of her own into the side of his chest, altering his trajectory until he hit the sand next to them uselessly. The corrosive mist ate away at his clothes and mask until only his scarred, inhuman body was left. Even those two, having witnessed the horrors of war, felt their blood run cold at the sight of him.

"His skin is as hard as iron," Mei said.

"Ahnd histh shtrengthh ishth reaally big thoo."

"Please don't talk."

"I find it funny," Kakazu said, standing at his full height with his arms splayed "That you two find the time in your lives to chat amongst yourselves at such a harrowing moment."

Mei shrugged. "I've had worse. Who are you?"

His skin split at the shoulders and tentacle-looking wires flowed through the cracks, whipping back and forth like they had their own minds. "No one important."

00000000

Naruto ducked under the raging hellfire and quickly created a shadow clone, which grabbed him by the wrist and flung him to the side, sacrificing itself in the progress. He zigzagged forward and jumped, getting out the of the way of the wire monster slamming its fist down in the sand and sending a plume upwards at insane heights.

A gust of wind blew at it from the right, and it merely had to turn and blow out a stream of fire to overtake the wind and redirect it back at Temari, who jumped out of the way at the last second. It turned back to Naruto, who had a rasengan in hand, running wildly at the mass of wires with the intent of blasting it apart to smithereens.

It jumped away and rapid-fired fireballs at Naruto, who jumped out of the way, letting the rasengan dissipate. "We need to get closer!" he shouted out at Temari, who busied herself with blasting gusts of wind at the monster, one after another.

"I know!" she shouted back.

"I've got an idea!"

"What?!"

Before she could ask another question, Naruto created a small crowd of shadow clones, which paired off, created their own rasengans, and summarily ran at the beast with reckless abandon.

As it blasted them apart like the small pieces they were, Naruto ran to Temari, who was practically holding herself up with her war fan. It wasn't very surprising, seeing as she was fighting something antithetical to her element and also after having trained for about half a day with him. "This is bad," she said between wheezes. "I'm a fucking kage. I need to be stronger."

"Just… follow my lead and we'll get it done in one go," Naruto said, grabbing both her shoulders. "You're strong. It's just a bad match-up. We have to do this together!"

She nodded shakily and took her fan in both hands. "Let's do this."

After the fire mask got done roasting the Naruto crowd, it turned its gaze to the last two of the opponents. Unrelentingly, it spat out a burst of fire at them and they scattered to either side, Naruto creating a couple of pairs of clones, who started up their rasengans. The fire mask prioritized the gust of wind aimed at it and shot a fire ball at it, creating an explosion and shoveling up massive amounts of sand in the air, which got carried upwards and out, almost like a fog between it and Temari. Then, it speared the Narutos who had almost gotten to it with its wires, stopping their offense in their tracks.

An unsettling silence came over the battle field as it tried to figure out what to do over the period of two or so seconds. It took a step towards the sand cloud until hands came up from the sand and grabbed a hold of its wires. Another Naruto jumped up from the ground and swung a rasengan at its torso, but was ripped to shreds before the rasengan was even past his chest. It turned into a puff of smoke.

The Narutos trying to ambush the fire mask masked the sound of Temari grunting heavily and subsequent giant gale of wind at it. The mask immediately shot a huge torrent of white-hot flames at the sand cloud, catching the gale of wind just as it ripped apart cover. They met head on and flattened outwards, creating a wall of flame that extended fields in either direction.

The mask didn't let off, even when its stream ballooned at its base and a small, ball-like protuberance followed the river of fire up all the way to its face, until it stopped the stream itself by shoving a rasengan in its mouth, cracking it apart immediately and exploding it outwards, making it fall to the ground, completely lifeless.

Naruto fell down near it, the skin on his arms, chest, and half his face an angry red from the melting heat. Temari ran up to him and helped him up. "That was a stupid idea," she said, berating him.

Despite the massive pain flaring up all over his body, his only response was to smile at her. "But it worked."

"By the grace of something higher than us, I'm sure. How did you know that would work?"

"Intuition," he said. "Can't get near, or it'll spear us. Can't out-element it. Had to get to near it without seeing me."

"You're just lucky it was stupid."

"At some point, luck is just part of the skill set. Now come on, we need to help everyone else."

00000000

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

Kurotsuchi fell to the ground after getting hit in the back with thousands of tiny little porcupine needles. The shawl on her back quickly turned red, despite there not being any actual porcupine needles. Through the pain, she pressed open her eyes to look at her opponent, who had turned jet black with white images of a skeletal structure remaining. His back had been riddled with one of Kakashi's lightning jutsu and despite that, he was smiling like a monster.

Sakura immediately knelt down and started up her healing jutsu, obviously confused by the situation at hand. "What happened?"

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!"

Kakashi was backing away from the chuckling demon, who stood back up. "I'd sure love to play, but I need to get rid of this girl as quickly as I can," Hidan said, grabbing a couple of stakes from inside his coat and immediately aiming them at his vital parts.

Kakashi's eye opened wide with realization and he rushed forward, jouncing them away at the last second, one getting lodged in his shoulder and another grazing his ribs. Kurotsuchi roared in pain as two new blotches of red stained her torso.

Hidan and Kakashi started hand-to-hand fighting; Hidan trying to stay in the circle and kill himself at the same time and Kakashi trying to move him out without him self-harming.

New blots of red opened up on Kurotsuchi's body faster than Sakura could heal them. And worse, the girl was losing strength at a rapid pace. If something didn't change soon, she was going to expire.

Just as Sakura was about to summon a giant slug to help her out, a brown blur flew down from the sky and planted a foot on the dead man's back from behind before he could realize she was there, and pushed him out of his circle. However, he managed to swirl around in mid-air with his stakes outstretched and scraped her thigh, landing with his feet down on the sand, already creating a blood circle at his feet. Kakashi ran forward, all thoughts on getting him out of the circle, and didn't expect when a stake flew from the man's hands and stuck itself in his thigh. He fell to the ground and ripped it out in one fluid motion, but enough time was bought for the dead man. Blackness flooded back into his skin and for a moment, the only white was the white of his sclera and his pearly teeth.

Kurotsuchi moaned and writhed on the ground, under unbelievable amounts of pain. Sakura was trying to stabilize her. Kakashi was staggering up. Fu was hovering in the air with confusion and fear evident on her face, blood dripping down her thigh and splattering against the sand.

Hidan was smiling. "Let's have some fun."

00000000

Kakuzu raised a hand to block the leg aiming at his face and spat out a wad of wires from his mouth intent on debilitating the cat woman. However, she jumped away at the last moment, allowing time for Mei finish her jutsu and spit out a corrosive mist at the tongue of wires protruding from his mouth. He used the wires he stuck underground to reel him away at the last moment and released a buffet of wind at the cloud of acid, pushing it to the two of them in one go.

Blue flames raced up Yugito's body as she pounced through the cloud and at Kakuzu, the wind buffeting her body only enhancing the amount of firepower available to her. Kakuzu swung at her, which she ducked under, grabbing his sides with her reduced claws and swinging the rest of her body around his back. She then flared up her fire, doing her best to concentrate it on her torso and hopefully melt his back, or at least the wires that dwelled within.

Rather than let her do that any longer than she was able to do, he willed more wires to unravel from his thighs to puncture her legs and hold her in place. She growled in pain, but that pain only succeeded in upping the intensity of her fires, softening his iron hard skin. Before she could let go of his sides and drive her claws into his vulnerable skin, more wires shot up from his back and wrapped around her wrists and dug into her forearms. Yugito grit her teeth, shuffled her body up and sunk her fiery fangs into the base of his neck, ripping out chunks of his skin with reckless abandon, even when wires came out and attempted to gag her, she only spat out an even more hellish fire and ripped those apart.

Mei stood at a distance and watched on. Anything she could use as an offensive maneuver had a high chance of killing Yugito. And then, from behind her, a gale of wind rushed along the ground and hit the two squabbling fighters, raising up in a pillar of air and wind and hit the fire, further incubating the heat the two were inside of.

Naruto and Temari landed next to Mei. "What's going on?" Temari asked, somewhat out of breath.

"He has iron hard skin and wires crawling under his body. Doesn't matter how much we throw at him, he doesn't break even a little bit."

Naruto didn't look too sure. "Yugito's taking quite a big chunk out of him."

Just as he said that, a large pond's worth of water expelled from his body. It quickly quelled the flames and dissipated the air fanning them. Yugito still blazed from inside the volume of water, but anyone could see that she was taken out of it by a huge amount. Her legs and arms were stuck and bound by wire and when he tightened them, they cranked together, leaving her completely immobilized with her arms and legs tight together.

Using his wires, he flung her to the side and stood back up, his revealed wires retreating back into his body. There were chunks of his neck and back missing, but he didn't seem to mind. Instead of viscera and gore, they only showed more of the wires that seemed to make up his entire body. "One down," he spat out. "And I don't even have to take you two alive. Be grateful for that."

Before Naruto could rush in and show that demon some righteous vengeance, Temari grabbed his wrist. "The wires," she hissed into his ear. "Those are the same as the fire thing that attacked us. And there are the same types of masks on his back as the one of the fire thing. They're connected somehow."

Mei puffed out her chest and shot out pockets of hot lava at Kakuzu, who dodged them with the grace of a ballerina and the pragmatism of a monk. As he dodged the bouts of lava, he edged ever closer to them. "If you offer yourselves, it will be painless. I promise you this!"

Naruto created a round of clones and they all rushed at Kakuzu, creating rasengans in their palms as they ran. The most they could all do together was to slow him down somewhat. They were too bunched up and his body was too attuned to instant killing at a medium range. They were mostly fed to the lava Mei was using as projectiles.

The main Naruto grit his teeth at the sight of clones of himself getting destroyed like so many ants under a large boot.

"I've got a plan," Temari said excitedly, pulling at Naruto's and Mei's sleeve. "Listen closely."

After finishing the last of the clones, Kakuzu ran forward, making sure to keep himself rooted in the loose sand, and aimed an iron hard forward punch at Temari, the only one still standing where the others had been. Instead of dodging like he had been expecting, she put the fan in between them and let his knuckles clang against her fan. She twisted it to the side and extended it, sending a thin, weighty iron slab straight into his nose.

It stung.

He growled and jumped forward, both arms extended, and tried to grab her. She fell to the ground and the only thing he grabbed was the upright fan. Before he could toss it away, a severely sunburned blond man jumped from the sand with a swirling ball of energy in hand and shoved it in his exposed back, sending him forward.

When he rolled around, everything was dark; the sun was blotted out. Before he could scamper out of the way, Mei, who had jumped above him, released a pressurized blast of water straight into his chest, pushing him into the now soaked sand. He sent his wires up to turn the woman into mincemeat, but a gust of razor-sharp wind blew through and cut his wires into confetti. It also knocked the water off course, allowing him to roll out of the way and right into a rasengan spiraling into his chest.

He was blasted backwards until halted by the blunt end of a fan directly where his vertebra should have been, if he had any left. Temari took it away and swung it around, which Kakuzu blocked with his arms pressed into an X. Two shadow clones came to either side of him and kept him in place for Mei to run up and spray corrosive acid directly into the small of his back. He was kept in place by the two Narutos as the acid ate away at his insides.

He writhed in pain for all of two seconds before his entire body split at the seams, sending all the wires that were corded in his body suddenly outward and whipping everyone away in the process. He stood alone, panting and nearly fallen over. His eyes winced as two of the masks on his back crumbled to dust and a good portion of the wires spilling from his back turned to a black sludge. Looking up, he saw that he was surrounded by the three, circling him like a trio of vultures, studying his moves.

This was bad. Lighting was usually his worst enemy, but they went with repeated heavy attacks in a single place, his back, which was also very effective. He had underestimated them for sure. The Mizukage and the two tailed Jinchuuriki he thought were his greatest worries, but the two blondes worked together too well for their own good.

Well, he might have incapacitated one of the Jinchuuriki, but if he couldn't extract her, then it was next to meaningless. He was going to have to put his faith into Hidan that he managed to get one or two of them.

He suddenly felt a whole lot worse about his situation.

Instead of fighting more and risking death, he pulled himself back into the sand and retreated from the three fighters, who all sighed a breath of relief when they saw the last of his broken head sink under the fallow sand.

00000000

Kakashi stood on his one good leg, mind racing a mile a minute, trying to figure out a way out of the scenario he was placed in. Ninjutsu was a no-go against him, as it would hurt Fu. Taijutsu was useless. Genjutsu might work, but the man was clearly unhinged, if the stake pressed against his neck and the manic grin were of any indication. The second he got put under something, he could very well panic and end his life along with Fu's.

"Okay!" Kakashi shouted after a few seconds of deliberation. "Let's… let's talk this out, why don't we? What are your demands – what do you want?" he asked desperately. For all his experience, all the techniques he had obtained and meticulously mastered and maintained, nothing could help him in this situation. The only thing he could have done would be to know about it beforehand.

He lost before he could even put up a fight.

If it were even possible, Hidan's smile grew even more. "Talk is for those who have time. Unluckily for the girl, hers is about to run o-"

His speech ran short when he realized that the stake was no longer pressed to his neck. He tried to follow his hand up his arm, but he couldn't do it. It wasn't there anymore. Lamely, he looked to the ground and saw his dead, lifeless arm leaking blood slowly into the yellow sand. The skin quickly lost its black color and turned into its normal shade of white.

What had hit him? He turned around and tried to look for anything that could have gone off and hit him unawares. It didn't feel like he got hit with anything. And the cyclops looked just as confused as he did. What could have-

The girl. She was standing next to the downed stone girl and the medic. Her left arm had grown two purplish exoskeletal claws coming out of either side of her wrist. It was pressed against her other shoulder, which was now a stump leaking blood, much like his. Pain was on her face, but more than that, there was rage and anger. She had the face of the devil.

Without saying a word, without grunting in pain, or giving any other sort of indication that she had just cut her arm off to save her neck, she tucked the make-shift scissors up her other armpit. The medic's eyes widened and she tried to intervene, but she wasn't fast enough.

He was too far away, so he couldn't hear the sound of two blades pressing together, slicing cleanly through bone and flesh, but he could see the arm fall lifeless to her other side, and he could hear the sound of his other arm falling to the ground next to him.

Well… shit.

A foot was pressed to his chest and he was sent spiraling back like before, away from his circle, only this time he hit the sand and tried to scramble up without the use of his arms. A pack of dogs sprouted from the sand and grabbed a hold of everything they could to keep him in place.

Hidan roared and screamed in indignation. Curses sprung from his lips like water from a broken faucet. He'd lost. He never lost. That wasn't something in his faith. That wasn't something in his job description. What happened now?

Greyish black wires came up from the ground and wrapped around his midsection, pulling him underground and away from the dogs, who let go out of confusion.

He was gone, sunk into the sand with the help of his partner.

00000000

Naruto blinked a couple times. Was he seeing things wrong? Was he under a genjutsu? What was this before his eyes?

Kurotsuchi wasn't moving with her face pressed into the sand and her clothes almost completely logged with wet blood and Fu was kneeling on the ground, her entire body shaking and her arms off at the shoulders.

That wasn't-

This wasn't-

This couldn't happen.

Kurotsuchi was brash and stubborn and foolhardy, but… she couldn't be…

And Fu was… she was so strong. She was happy. How could that look of despair be real in her eyes?

Sakura was on her knees too, hands lit up with green, glowing chakra, doing her best to stymie the blood.

But there was so much.

Fu turned her head and her face went from shock and despair to worry. "N-Naruto…" she gasped. "Please, you can't do this. You can't let it take you. I can grow them back…"

But he wasn't listening anymore. He looked at his arms. They were cloaked in red chakra, bubbling and swirling. And a blackness was overtaking them from his chest outwards. The blackness was going upwards, reaching his head and-

What was he standing around for?

He had things to kill.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

If there was anything Naruto was sure of, it was that he didn't dream. He usually didn't, but he could always recall a sort of time passing. Usually, he knew when he slept for a couple hours. He felt rested when he woke up.

Not this time.

When the scarlet-black chakra covered his eyes, it was only there for a moment. Eyes closed.

Then his eyes opened. And they were full of slime. There was a weight on his entire body that kept him from moving. He couldn't breathe. His mouth was set open and he couldn't close it. Panic set in and he did his best to buck the unknown thing off his body, but he was stuck in his place.

And, like it had never been there in the first place, it was gone. He shot up, chest heaving, eyes searching, confused as all hell, and feeling like he'd been run over by a herd of buffalo. He couldn't see because the room was full of smoke, but all was quiet except for the sound of wheels moving through sand lethargically.

As the smoke thinned out, he got a better picture of the world around him. Time had passed.

In front of him were two slabs of white-blue slug. They were Tsunade's summons. They helped with healing. Above him was the familiar ceiling of a moving caravan cart, normally shielding him from the beating sun. Sakura was at the foot of the cart, legs crossed, and a look of consternation on her brow. Her eyes were shut concentrating. At the opposite end was a purple cocoon-looking thing about the size of the slugs.

The way he was laid out next to the other two slugs made it look like he was the third of an array. He was still blinking when the flap of the back of the cart pulled open with a grave-looking Yugito staring at him. Before he could open his mouth, her arm whipped forward and he was hit in the head with clothing. "Dress, then come out," she ordered.

The flap fluttered close.

Naruto gulped and did his best to get his appendages through the clothing in the near pitch black. His mind was swirling with questions, none that he liked to think up the answers to. He got as close as he could with clothing himself and fell out the back of the cart onto cold, silky sand. It was almost as dark outside the cart as it was in. above him was a swirling array of stars so bright they made slight shadows in the dunes and tracks behind them. The moon was almost full and looked too big to be real.

"Do you need help?"

Naruto looked up to the robed figure above him. Yugito had pulled her cowl over her face since she threw the clothing at him. It was a little bit unsettling how the robes settled over her body. It made her look like a specter with the light wind fluttering her robes slightly. He shook his head and stood up. The silky sand was uncomfortably cold, but not unbearable to his feet.

"What happened?" Naruto asked. His voice was that of an old, 70-year old chainsmoker.

Yugito patted him on the back and started walking forward after the cart that was making progress away from them. "Things went to hell… but things could be worse."

Naruto started padding after her. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Well," she started. Her voice was low and silent "Neither do I."

" _What happened?_ " Naruto pressed. "Fu… she-"

"She's fine," Yugito said quickly. "In fact, out of all us, she's probably the most fine, ironically. Jinchuuriki have better healing, but the seven-tails is something else. She can grow back entire limbs, apparently. I don't know how that relates to bugs, but I guess it does."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief. "What about Kurotsuchi?"

When Yugito didn't answer immediately, his heart sunk. "She's… not good."

"What's that mean?" Naruto said, worry grabbing him. "She was- She was… she looked dead."

"She's not-" Yugito almost shouted before catching herself. "She's not dead, but she almost got there. And she almost might take a turn for the worse if we don't get to the village of stones quickly. Apparently the other akatsuki member hurt her pretty bad, but she's stable because of Sakura for now."

"W-What about Temari or Mei? Are they okay?"

"Temari's fine," Yugito said simply. "A few burns that are little worse that sunburns… Mei, however. Well, you kinda did a number on her."

Those words punched him in the gut far better than any closed fist could. He knew he lost it because of hatred. But… oh, no. He hurt someone again.

"She's not going to die," Yugito was quick to add. "You just smacked her around a little bit. The rest is because of chakra exhaustion. Sakura said that she'll be out of the slug in no time. We don't really know about Fu because she has to be radio silent in that cocoon of hers."

Naruto let the information absorb into him for a few seconds, before an idea came to his mind. "Wait… what about you?"

Silence. She shuffled with her robes so they covered her arms slightly better. "I'm fine."

Naruto jumped forward and grabbed the hem of her robes, lifting them up until her thighs showed. They were wrapped in bandages with four neatly placed splotches of blood showing through going up her thigh. They also showed on her calves and he had a feeling they also existed on her arms. As soon as he saw, she shoved him away with little real power behind her. She was weak. Very weak. "That's not… you can't… that's not fine! You have to tell Sakura."

"It's fine enough!" she said back in a scream-whisper. "You almost died. Kurotsuchi is literally dying. Mei would have expired if it weren't for those slugs. I'm not at death's door. _I'm fine enough_. Get that?"

Naruto staggered back from the venom in her words. Her eyes closed and she shook her head. "I… I'm sorry," she said with a waver in her voice. "I'm sorry, okay?" Her eyes were starting to wet the cowl covering most of her face.

Naruto blinked. "Why are you sorry? I'm the one… I lost my shit. This was my fault."

"Not that!" she sputtered. "I said- I said that you could lean on me. I said that everything would be okay if we just leaned on each other and helped each other out, but it wasn't! I wasn't… I wasn't good enough. You were hurt and I fucking hate that!" she didn't bother to mask the volume of her words any more. "Every single time I say I'll get stronger so no one I care about will get hurt, it's never enough. No matter how much I push! No matter how much I care! And then I met you and I believed that I could be different for once. But… well, look around."

It was like she lost the energy to move any more. Her knees buckled underneath herself and she punched the sand. "Just look around!" she shouted. "I'm one of the most powerful things in the world and it isn't enough! You can't even lean on me when I said you could. I'm nothing but a fucking hypocrite. I can't-"

Her words were cut off when she felt a head of hair push up under her chest and hands grab her thighs. Before she could question anything, she was hoisted up piggy-back style on Naruto's back. "It…" he started. He couldn't find the words. "It must really hurt to walk around like that. How did you do it?"

Rather than frustration, all the sadness and pain flooded forward with no warning. "It was so fucking hard," she spluttered, wetting his neck with her tears. "I was in so much pain. But I didn't want to worry anyone. And I was scared how you would look at me when you realized you couldn't count on me like I said you could. Because… because you give me hope. A kind of hope that- that I haven't felt before."

Naruto nodded along as he plodded after the cart. She'd been hurting for a very long time. Supporting her as she cried on his neck, though seemingly not much, did help in some way. And that was good. "It's just… not fair any more, isn't it?" Naruto asked.

She sniffled.

Naruto sighed. "I don't… Sometimes I don't think I can do it, you know. I know it's easy to go on about never giving up, but… it's harder to tell someone how hard it is to deal with doubt. How hard it is to not hate. And it looks like I failed in that department. When I saw-" his throat stopped and he had to swallow lest he hurl the contents of his stomach. "When I saw Fu and Kurotsuchi… I don't know. Love is so much harder to feel than hate because when you hate someone you don't care what they have to say, what they want to do, what has been done to them. Hate's like putting a blindfold on. Well, no, because that makes it sound like hate's easy to throw off. It's not. It sticks to you and doesn't let go until your sense of vengeance of vindication is fulfilled. To love someone, you have to ignore what's wrong with them or accept them for it. And that… sometimes that feels impossible. To love someone instead of hating them… can anyone do it? I don't know if I'm making sense. But I do know one thing for sure: I love you all. Even you. You and Mei, Temari, Fu, Kurotsuchi. I love all of you. And I'm going to do my best to not change that. And I'm happy that you want to protect me. And I want to protect you."

By the time he stopped talking, Yugito's eyes were dry. She was so tired. Her limbs felt dead. If he dropped her on the sand, she didn't know if she would be able to stand back up. And he felt so warm. His body, but his words more. They swept over her and sapped her desire to even twitch a muscle more. "I love you too," she whispered, right before sweet sleep took her away from him.

00000000

"This place is pretty big," Naruto said through heavy-lidded eyes. He was dead on his feet from both mental and physical exhaustion and couldn't wait to find a bed for him to sleep in.

They made it to the village hidden in stones just fine with Mei popping out from under the slug just before daybreak the night he came out of it. Sakura managed to keep Kurotsuchi stable until they got to the hospital, where she was being worked on. He wanted to stay with her, but Temari put her foot down and sent him to rest at her and her father's house. The kage, including Temari and Mei, were going over information at a 'secure place', and Fu was still in her cocoon, who was being carried by Yugito behind him.

"Yes it is," the cat woman in question said from behind him. She was faring slightly better than he was on the exhaustion accounts, but she was also carrying a cocoon over her shoulders.

The house they had stepped into was a little smaller than a mansion from the offset. Being one of the very few relatives of the current kage must have had its perks. Naruto had no idea how only two people could live in it by themselves, however. His feet clacking against the stone floor was enough to create echoes across the house.

It felt lonely.

Naruto sighed. "Whelp, I'm going to sleep," he said, shucking his shoes off at the front door and immediately setting out to find bedding.

"You're not going to shower?" Yugito asked. "We were on the trail for a while."

"Are you?" he asked, turning around. "I think I'd just fall asleep in the shower, to be honest."

"You're going to make the sheets dirty."

Naruto seemed to be struck with disbelief at her statement. "Seriously? We almost died protecting the princess of hidden rock. I'd say we deserve a dirty sheet or two."

"You're being a poor guest in someone else's house."

Naruto groaned at the ceiling. "Okay, fine. I'll get wet and then dry and then I'm going to sleep."

As he walked off to find a suitable place to get wet and then dry, Yugito tried to raise her voice to stop him, to thank him, but no words came forth. Rather than indecision, it was like her throat wouldn't let her say anything.

And then he was gone and she was alone in the hallway with only a purple cocoon to keep her company. She sighed and carried the purple thing to the nearest loadbearing table and set it down, working out the kinks in her shoulders as she did.

" **You've certainly been busy, haven't you?"**

At other times, Yugito might have blustered or raged against the voice in her mind chipping off pieces of her sanity, but not today. She just accepted it. No energy, or no will. It didn't really matter. 'Not that busy,' she thought back.

" **Busy thinking. Not that busy talking."**

'Thank you kindly for the judgment value. I'm very aware of my own inadequacies, so there's no need to constantly remind me of it.' She thought out as she sought out her own showerhead.

" **Oh, kitten. I'm not trying to remind you of your faults. I'm just… being playful. What's on your mind anyway? It's been in such a jumble as of late."**

'I… I don't know. I'm supposed to be strong enough to protect everyone, but… I'm not. And I don't like that. I don't like having the lives of the people I love being up in the air.'

" **Well… that's life. It's variable and uncertain. What's important is to do what you can with them while you can. You've such a short lifespan, after all."**

'Maybe to you.'

" **To you as well. How many shinobi do you see over the age of, say, 40, walking around? Hell, even Jinchuuriki tend to die young."**

'I'm different,' she pressed out. 'I… I love you, you know. And I appreciate all that you've done for me- I really do. We're going to do just fine together.'

Yugito closed the door to the bathroom she found and began undressing, almost hissing at the reflection in the mirror. Almost every inch of her was covered in grime, her hair was lank and oily, and her face looked like a ghoul's. A shower and a good sleep will do her well.

" **Oh, hun, don't you think saying your face is like a 'ghoul's' is a big much? You just look a bit tired."**

She shook her head and went into the shower. 'I don't know… Do you think I should start wearing more makeup?'

Matatabi thought about that for a while before smiling. **"Is there someone you want to impress?"**

Yugito paused right before reaching for the handle. Her eyes were going half-lidded and she wasn't thinking right anymore. 'H-Hey, do you think you could take over for a little bit? I feel like I could fall over at any minute.'

Just as her knees were about to buckle, Matatabi's chakra flowed into her body and took control, allowing Yugito's brain a chance to rest. She looked at her fingers almost confusedly and then to the shower handles.

Unfettered access to a human body with no one coming to take control should she do something disagreeable?

Matatabi smiled through Yugito's lips. This was going to be fun.

00000000

Naruto groaned as he flopped into bed and crawled under the sheets. He didn't know whose bedroom he was in, but considering how sparse the room was and the lack of any gendered colors on the sheets and blankets, he had to guess it was a guest room.

The bed was so comfy that he felt like he might sleep forever. Kurotsuchi's family really took care of their own. Being only in his boxers, he could feel every bit of the soft fabric on his skin. It was a far, far cry from the usual of sleeping either in sand or on the wooden floor of a rickety caravan cart. He was so caught up in his own world that he only barely heard knuckles rapping against the door.

Naruto lifted his head up and said "Yugito? Don't worry, I'm decent."

The knob turned and swung forward wildly followed by the naked body of Yugito stumbling through. It was like she put her entire weight into pushing it open. Her eyes were yellow with slits of vertical black running through. Unsteady on her feet, she looked into his eyes and smiled a wide, toothy grin.

Dumbstruck, Naruto immediately turned his head away and sat up, ready to act at a moment's notice. "Yugito! Uhh… what're you doing?" he asked quickly.

Yugito's body was barely keeping itself up as she stumbled towards his bed, falling forward until the bed was there to keep her body supported. "Yugito isn't here right now," she said ominously. "It's me, Matatabi."

Naruto gulped and slowly turned around to face the woman who was being possessed by a demon death cat. She was on all fours on the bed, slowly making her way to him. When he realized her arms were on either side of his body, he scrambled back even more and held his arms in front of him. "What are you doing?" he asked as adrenaline began to pump into his bloodstream.

Her smile turned to a frown and one of her eyebrows quirked up. "What?" she whined out. "Yugito entrusted me with getting her body to bed. Might as well make use of it until then, right?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't like how you phrased that."

Her eyes flicked downward at his boxers, where she made a show of licking her lips. "My, aren't you glad to see me?"

He frowned and shoved the blanket over his groin without looking down. "I'm not a grower," he said through pursed lips. "And I don't think Yugito would appreciate you doing this."

One of the corners of her lips curled up. "That girl doesn't know what's good for her. And besides, why are we talking about her? I'm out and about and it feels so good," the chakra construct said, writhing her body over the sheets the way a cat would. Using Yugito's body, however… it just looked plain erotic.

Doing his best to hide a blush, he looked away. "You can do that in your own room."

She stopped to look at him, her playfulness back in full view. "Well, this is my room. For the night at least. And maybe for the next afternoon as well. A girl's gotta get her beauty sleep, after all."

Naruto flipped the sheets up and stepped out. "Great, hope you enjoy it-" His mouth stuck when two blue strings of flame wrapped around his midsection and wouldn't let him go. Turning around, he saw that the tails were coming from her tailbone. Generally, she also looked more animalistic. Her teeth had grown sharp and her hair was frizzy. Her muscles were bunched up, ready to act at a moment's notice. Rather than eroticism, she exuded danger; the way a wild animal would.

"Come now," she said, her voice deeper and huskier. "It's not often I get to move around. I wanna get some… exercise in."

He pulled against her tails to no avail. They were stuck to him and wouldn't give him an inch. Naruto shook his head, dumbstruck. "Matatabi… I don't… please, I don't want to… do that with you."

The tails yanked him to her as suddenly as a snapped bungee cord would. The world moved past him until it stopped with him inches away from Matatabi's face, her smile dangerously sharp. He gulped and grabbed her shoulders, trying to push her away; but his arms were weak from exhaustion and she had enough chakra to destroy a nation.

Her hands reached down and cupped his cheeks. The pads of her fingers were soft and gentle. A shuddering sigh crept its way up her chest and she slowly lowered her body onto his. "So this is what I'm missing," she whispered.

Naruto gulped. He was afraid of doing anything, but as seconds turned into minutes, his boldness swelled. "W-What are you doing?" he asked.

Though her face was out of view, he could feel her cheek muscles move. She was smiling. Matatabi sat up a little bit and touched his face some more. "I've never understood humans and their pursuit of carnal pleasures, but it makes sense to me now. When I touch you with Yugito's body, there's a warmth that swells in my stomach and doesn't let go. This… feeling, it's intoxicating. My word, love is such a powerful drug."

The tails that had held him crept back from his stomach and dissipated into nothingness. She fell back down on his body, her cheek resting on his chest and her legs wrapped around his own. Naruto let his head fall back on the pillow. The adrenaline was calming down, leaving him more drained than ever. "Well… if it's just cuddling, that's okay," he sighed out.

She rubbed her cheek up and down his chest, purring a little bit. "I can see why she wants to do this so much," she whispered. "Damned pride getting in the way."

Naruto didn't say anything. He had a feeling she wanted him to chase her on that thread, but he didn't want to. Not when she was discussing Yugito's private thoughts and feelings. When he didn't chase, she sighed into his chest. "Well, you're not nosy, I'll give you that," Matatabi she said lowly. She sighed and relaxed her muscles against his body. "You do know that she's in love you, right?"

Naruto's head turned to the side. "I had a feeling."

She drummed her fingers against his chest. "So why not chase after her? Do you not love her back?"

He shook his head. "She… I think that… there are some things that people have to get through with their own power, you know. If I call her out on her love, then her fears might go away for a little bit, but they'll be back. You were right when she said she had a lot of pride. She wants to protect me and keep from all the bad things in the world, but she doesn't want to experience the good with me. Or she… doesn't think she deserves to, or something. I don't know."

Matatabi hummed into his chest. "Perhaps you're right. I just want her to be happy, but… helping people doesn't necessarily help them, I've come to see in my lifetime."

"What?" Naruto asked.

The demon cat on his chest thought for a little bit. "You see an animal on a trail, perhaps a squirrel. It's starving and lean. It shakes with fright at the sight of you, so you leave for it some portion of your food. It eats the food and grows from it. But then it approaches another traveler for food that it expects him or her to have and that traveler kills and eat the ever so bold squirrel. Sometimes, helping people ends up hurting them." She sighed contently into his chest. "I won't let her know you know about her love. Just… love her back, will you? When she grows her spine, she'll be worried and afraid."

Naruto nodded and wrapped his arms around her back, starting to nod off. "You don't have to worry about that."

00000000

Naruto woke up as a line of light poked through the window and glanced upon his eyes. His body tried to fight waking up, but lost that battle quickly. His eyes opened to realize the sun was coming through a skylight he hadn't realized existed last night. It was late in the day.

His body was well rested and happy with him. And the only things keeping him from getting up was the general feeling of lethargy after a night of good sleep and the body of Yugito resting on his chest. He was confused for a few seconds until he remembered last night's events in full.

Oh wait.

Was Matatabi still in Yugito's body?

If not, then this was somewhat of a compromising position for Yugito to be in.

Before he could wriggle his way out of her grasp, she groaned and tightened her hold on him, stretching her body against his. Her cheek landed on the top of his chest as her eyes fluttered open. She looked up until her eyes were looking into his. Slowly, her eyes went from groggy and sleepy, to disbelief, to surprise.

Shocked into silence, Yugito scrambled away from him until she was at the foot of the bed, swaddling herself in the blanket to save her modesty. As adrenaline began to pump into her system, her breathing increased its pace and her eyes were busy taking in the room. "W-What…" Her jaws clenched shut. Her eyes shot to his, a look of murder in her eyes. "Did anything happen last night?" she asked in the voice of a leader demanding an answer from a subordinate.

Naruto was quick to deny anything had happened. He crossed his arms into an X and said "No no no, Matatabi was just teasing me last night."

Her glare intensified. "And just what does _teasing_ mean?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Well, it felt more like I was going to get raped and then it turned out she was joking. So, I guess it counts as teasing. Pretty scary when it was happening, though."

Yugito sighed and let her head fall. She curled up in a tight ball and groaned. Loudly. "I'm… I'm so sorry."

The Uzumaki got up and crawled his way to her and patted her back. "Ah, don't worry about it. Wasn't your fault."

Her head peaked out of the ball, only one eye visible, looking at him dourly. "Did you… see anything?"

Naruto blinked a few times, trying to understand what she said, and then blushed a little bit. "I- I mean," he straightened out his back and grabbed the back of his head "Yeah," he admitted.

Her head tucked back into the ball and she groaned even louder this time.

He quickly went through all the options available to him and struck them down one by one. Finally, he shrugged, grabbed the blanket ball that was Yugito, and leaned back with the ball in his arms. "Look, don't be embarrassed. We're comrades, right? We have to be comfortable around each other."

Her head looked back up. "That's what you're going to say?" she asked, getting very near hysteria.

He shrugged. "Listen, when I don't know what to say, a lot of bullshit falls out an I just hope the person in front of me interprets it better than expected."

Her lips pressed into a line and she tucked her head back into the ball. "You're… you're such a dork," she said. He could hear the smile on her face in her words.

He leaned back, bringing the ball with him so he could spoon it. "It was a good night's sleep," he said in a conciliatory way. "Much better than I've had in a long time."

"What about your nights with Temari?" she asked quietly.

He shrugged. "Those were pretty good too. Now come on. It's weird trying to cuddle you like this."

Her legs pushed out of the blanket bundle and she settled against the pillow. "You sure Temari would be okay with you cuddling another woman?"

"Probably," he said, shrugged. "I mean, it's not like we're having sex."

Slowly, lethargically, like she was thinking about whether it was a good idea to be doing it as she did it, Yugito crawled her way out of the blanket, naked as the day she was born, and crouched over him, arms on either side of his neck.

Naruto's eyes were wide open and he gulped. "Uhm, Matatabi? Did you take control again?"

Yugito's face was straight, like she was doing a trivial task. "What?" she asked. "Didn't you say we have to be comfortable together? We're comrades."

"I was saying that to make you feel better," he said quickly. "And you're… uhm…" his voice fizzled out as she fell down on his chest and rubbed her cheek against it.

"Well, you certainly are more comfortab-"

She was cut off as the door opened, showing a wheel-bound chair Kurotsuchi being pushed in by Temari. They'd been mid-conversation and had stopped when they saw the state Yugito and Naruto were in, namely, their lack of clothing. Kurotsuchi's mouth clacked shut and her face turned red with rage. "In my own fucking bed?!" she asked, her voice like bubbling lava.

Naruto looked around. "This is your room? I thought it was the guest room."

Yugito grabbed the blanket and swaddled herself back up into a ball as the weak princess of the hidden stone began to chew the both of them out. Temari only looked from behind and did her best to hide her laughing with her hand.

Not a day in the country of rocks and it was already interesting.

00000000

Itachi looked around himself at the participants of the meeting. Tobi, Kisame, and Madara, someone who he still couldn't believe existed. Things weren't shaking out how he planned them to be. The akatsuki were dropping like flies, which was taking away his reason for staying with the akatsuki. He had a feeling things were about to go nuclear.

"Where are Hidan and Kakuzu?" Kisame asked, looking around.

"Dead," Madara said. "Finished by the rampaging nine-tails."

Kisame's brow raised. "Dead? They're the immortal brothers. They don't die."

Madara shrugged. "Tell that to the dust floating around the desert of the land of wind. They did seem to accomplish their goal, however. One of the wives was near dead by the time Hidan was done with her. Nothing short of a miracle could have saved her. Also," he took out a sealing scroll and removed its contents: two tanned, female arms. "The arms of the seven-tailed. It seems her body is almost always saturated with the beast's chakra. There are at least a couple tails of chakra in here. If that one expires, we always have these."

Kisame narrowed his eyes. "Why does it sound like you saw these events firsthand?"

Madara blinked. "Because I did."

"Then why didn't you intervene? If your goal are these tailed beasts, why didn't you just take them while you could and kill everyone else?"

Madara crossed his arms over his chest. "Loathe as I am to admit it, an alliance of the world puts our plan at jeopardy. I wanted to show that they were incompetent, not make them into martyrs. Soon, the villages will turn back on themselves just like they always do. In the chaos, we'll sweep through and put our plan in motion."

Kisame shifted the weight from one foot to another uncomfortably. It was obvious that he wasn't comfortable with how the organization was shaking out. And, honestly, neither was Itachi.

"What's the next step?" Itachi asked.

"We wait for the chaos, then we get the last three Jinchuuriki. The nine-tails, two-tails, and seven-tails."

"Then Nagato and Konan were victorious?" Tobi asked.

"Of course they were," Madara said. "Now get prepared to seal away the eight-tails."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The impact of knuckles against hard stone could be heard across the entirety of the training field, loud as it was. As were the grunts of exertion and subsequent grunts of pain. Naruto might have been used to hitting hard objects, but the amount he had been doing was nearly unprecedented. Temari was needed for her duties as a kage, so she gave him the scant advice she could and sent him on a training exercise of his own.

Punching rocks. Ah, the noblest of exercises, no doubt. And also the most pain-inducing. Hitting the rock hurt like a mother, sure, but the worst part of it wasn't the physical. It was the frustration bubbling up as his subconscious filled his head with doubts aplenty.

Still though, progress was being made. He couldn't complain. Or, well, he _could_. He just had a sneaking suspicion that he shouldn't. Considering the heights of suffering Kurotsuchi or Fu went through, his complaints would seem paltry in comparison.

And so he stood, legs shoulder length apart, channeling chakra into his arms and hands to create cutting wind chakra, punching a boulder until he could split it apart. Over and over. Back and forth.

"Geez, kid, you really do go hard, don't you?"

Naruto took a deep breath and let his burning arms fall to his sides. They would be back to normal in an hour, tops. And he needed a break. Turning around to look at the bear of a man who accosted him, Naruto breathed out and said "Hey perv. Thought you'd be too busy chasing tail to talk to me."

Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and smiled heartily. "A man can't make time away for his favorite student?"

Naruto shook his head to his self and sat down cross-legged. "He doesn't even deny it."

The old man laughed and sat down with him. "And why would he?"

Naruto shrugged and leaned back against the boulder he had been striking moments prior. "Are you here to bestow any tidbits of knowledge that I should need for my wind chakra training?"

Jiraiya's face turned slightly more serious. "No, kid, I'm not." He sighed to himself and put his palms on his knees. "I'm here to talk to you."

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose and held a hand up. "I know how sex works; you don't have to tell me about it."

The old man didn't laugh. "You don't really have many confidants. So, I'm… well, I'm here for you, you brat. C'mon, tell me what's been going on in your mind."

"Like… what?"

Jiraiya deflated. "I can't read your mind kid. You need to tell me what's going on. It's not healthy to bottle that shit up."

"Should you really be a paragon of a healthy mindset?"

Jiraiya's eyebrows rose past his bangs. "Paragon? That's a big word. Am I feeling an influence from the newest kazekage?"

Naruto blushed a little bit.

Jiraiya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Just… let me do a thought experiment. I'll tell you everything I see in you and you'll tell me how right I am." Jiraiya paused to let Naruto reject his offer, and when no rejection came, Jiraiya continued. "First off, you're in love. That's just about obvious in everything you've got going on with you. Definitely to Temari and maybe to Fu. You're scared and nervous as all hell. You're worried that what's happened before could happen again and that worse things could happen than someone getting hospitalized. Am I right so far?"

By the time he was done, Naruto was glaring at a piece of rock to the side. It irked him how Jiraiya could see through him like a piece of glass. "Yeah, well… you got it. You forgot how I'm avoiding talking to Kyuubi ever since I took too much of its chakra, so ha."

"Kid, you're too old for me to be telling you what you should do. That's something you're going to be doing for yourself. Let me give you some advice, however. I've lived longer than you have and I've made a fuckton more mistakes than you have, so learn from me."

"I don't know, you _have_ been a pretty shitty teacher in the past."

Jiraiya held a hand up. "Then just… sit there and shut up for a few seconds, okay? You can ignore me later if you want. So, here, don't lie to the people you love. First and foremost."

"Well, duh," Naruto interrupted. "That's obvious."

Jiraiya shook his head. "Nope. It's fucking not. Trust me kid, there's going to be a time at some point in your life that you're going to want to keep shit away from them. You're going to want to play the big strong man that isn't affected by anything and that's the last thing you should do. Talk to your people about what you're scared about. If you don't, you will be eaten from the inside out. Trust them to stay no matter what's going on.

"Second, life's not fucking fair and don't ever think it ever was. Sometimes, you fall on your face and the world kicks you while you're down. All the love in the world isn't going to protect someone from, say, a fatal illness. You can change a lot, but you can't change everything. And you have to come to terms with that. Along with that, if you blame yourself for something you didn't have any control over, you _will_ fall to depths that you didn't even know was possible. And it might be impossible for anyone to pick you back up from that.

"Third, meaning is what you make of it. It's okay to have goals, but if those goals don't pan out, you could find yourself drifting through life. Just do what you want to do. Meaning will come after that."

Naruto nodded his head and stared at the ground between the two of them. Jiraiya was acting more serious than the time when he had almost been killed by him. Perhaps, it would do him well to listen to the old man's rambling. "Okay. All of that sounds good. What about you though? Has meaning come to you?"

Jiraiya smiled and leaned forward to clap the boy on his shoulder. "More than you'll ever know, kid."

00000000

Mei stood in front of the 'boutique' with her hands on her hips and sighed. "This won't do," she mumbled to herself. "This village is so drab. Hidden leaf is much better for these things."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kurotsuchi asked heatedly from the side of the woman. She was starting to regret allowing the older woman to push her around the town in her wheelchair.

"It means," Mei pressed. "That this village is far too militaristic for its own good. What if a woman just wants to feel pretty and get a nice dress? These double as shinobi attire," Mei said, hand sweeping over the window to the clothing store.

"It's practical," Kurotsuchi said indignantly. "And besides, what's wrong with things having more than one purpose?"

"Funny sentiment coming from a rock ninja."

Kurotsuchi turned in her chair to squint at Mei. "The fuck is that supposed to mean."

Mei lifted a single, unaffected eyebrow. "You know what it means. All Rock as ever done is fight, protect, and scramble for power, no matter the cost. You people only ever do the one thing."

The girl in the wheelchair swept her arms around to indicate her surroundings. "You see that? You see all that rock and volcanoes and mountains that nothing's growing on? Yeah, that's ours. As far as natural resources go, we've got jack all. We've only got ourselves. We're a big 'ol fucked up family."

Mei breathed out heavily. "I just wish some of the spoils could have manifested in dresses. Maybe then, you wouldn't be mistaken for a boy."

Kurotsuchi glared at the road in front of her. "I'm not mistaken for a boy."

"Oh, hun…"

"What? I'm not. I mean, I know I'm not the most drop-dead gorgeous person in this country, but, like… I don't look bad."

"I'm not saying you're unattractive. You're just attractive in the 'pretty-boy' sense of the word."

Kurotsuchi growled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, well, fuck you. How about that?"

Mei giggled. "You know, I could help you out on that front."

"What front?"

"The 'you looking like a guy' front."

Kurotsuchi pressed her face into her hands. "Jesus, fucking, Christ. Have you no tact?"

"Coming from the girl who swears in near every sentence coming from her mouth."

"I DON'T FUC-" Kurotsuchi stopped, eyes open, and pressed her lips together. She was beginning to boil. "I don't… swear in 'near every sentence coming from my mouth'."

"Could have fooled me."

Kurotsuchi stewed in her chair for a couple seconds before sighing. "What did you have in mind?"

Mei smiled. "When it comes to make-up, there are none other better than me."

"Nope. Don't want to look like a painted whore, thank you very much."

"I'll let that one slide, but okay. I've a few dresses from when I was less endowed. You could try one of those."

"You talk so weird… okay, I'll try a few of those on, once I'm cleared to actually, you know, walk."

"And when will that be?"

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "Day or two. The doctors are just being super careful."

"That sure is nice of them."

"And I'm sure it's only because I'm the kage's granddaughter. Most other people don't get the same duty of care around here."

"You're selling yourself short. It could be because you've entered into a continental peace treaty."

Kurotsuchi sighed. "Same difference. Different day."

"Well you could hardly put it against people for wanting to protect the symbols of their ideals. You mean something to these people. Even if it was something you were born into. You have resentment for that?"

"I don't want to be treated like a princess no more sturdy than a piece of glass, how about? I just want to be normal."

"…Is that why you don't like make-up?"

Kurotsuchi shook her head. "Don't like how it makes me look. I like me. I like looking like me. That's it."

"And the wanting to try my dresses out?"

The girl remained silent.

"Is there a certain someone…"

"Oh shut the fuck up," Kurotsuchi said, eyes half-lidded. "Are you going after him next? He's already got everybody. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if he fucked Tsunade next."

Mei chuckled to herself. "Oh, Yugito's not in on that. If they'd had sex, you'd be able to tell."

"Like how?"

"Like she wouldn't care quite so much as being caught in such a position. She'd probably still be mostly oblivious to the world."

"What? Does sex knock you out or something?"

"No, but love can."

Kurotsuchi turned to look Mei in the eyes when she said, "That's some of the prissiest bullshit I've ever heard in my entire life."

Mei giggled at the girl's response. "The world looks and feels different when you're in love. Ask anybody who's felt it. I'm sure you have, to an extent."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms. "I might've. But then he fucked some other chick. And started fucking another one after that."

"I don't think he and Fu have done the deed yet. Call it intuition."

"Call it whatever the fuck you want. I don't want any part of it."

"Even though you loved him."

Her jaws clenched. "I wouldn't call it love," she said quietly. "If anything, I had a bit of a crush. No more. No less."

"Well, he's not gone, you know. Open relationships and all that."

Kurotsuchi took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Can we talk about something else. Anything else?"

"Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

"Like… how the hell did _you_ become kage?"

00000000

Waking up was hard for Fu. Most times when she fell asleep, her body woke her up when it was rested, others she woke up forcibly. Her chrysalis state was different, however. It metamorphized part of Chomei's chakra into actual, usable flesh and repurposes it for whatever was needed. It was something she only had to make use of twice in her life. Once because of a bad accident while she was learning how to fly; and another because of a mission gone wrong. The thing about the chrysalis was that it wasn't resting her body. It was turning it back to normal. And it didn't know what normal was. She either had to will herself awake or wait until someone broke her open.

Seeing that she doubted anyone knew that the latter was an option, that only allowed her the first. And trying to tug her consciousness away from the soup of dreams and hallucinations was practically impossible. Though it only felt like seconds to her, waking up took a day and a half. And when she was awake, she had to breathe air, not sludgy material that she floated in while healing.

Fu's eyes shot up and she started scrambling against the slippery walls of the chrysalis. Her fists hit the walls over and over and her nails clawed at the soft, yet resilient coating to no avail. Frustration outpaced the fear and allowed her the wherewithal to push with all her might against the wall. With a swell, the chrysalis buckled and split along the seams.

Immediately, cold air impacted her face and chest and she shoved herself out of the purple encasement, which just so happened to have been perched on a table two feet away from the ground. Her body hit the ground with a wet slap and she started crawling forward, coughing up the purple sludge as she went. The world was spinning and she couldn't see or hear or even think.

But she could feel. There was an arm looped around her neck and shoulder pulling her up to a sitting position and a strong chest pressed against her back. It already made her feel safer because she recognized that chest. Dropping everything, she focused solely on her lungs, and getting the gunk out of it, coughing, spluttering, and choking it out one drop at a time.

When she finished and took a deep, shaking breath of clear, full air, her face started getting smudged around. A bit at a time, she felt her face getting cleared of the fluid and her faculties beginning to return. Hearing, taste, smell, and sight.

And god, what a sight to wake up to. Clear blue eyes smiling down at her bathed in a swallowing light. It made her feel warm. And not just mentally warm. There were tingles flowing from her face down to her extremities. She wanted to writhe and bask in that warmth.

"You feeling better?"

Fu blinked a few times and fully realized her situation. All thought was replaced with one, and only one, desire.

She brought her hands upwards and grabbed Naruto by the nape of the neck and pulled herself up to his mouth, taking his lips for her own. But it wasn't good enough. She wanted to consume him and to be consumed by him. She pushed her tongue into his mouth and started wrestling him down, both with her body and her mouth.

More. That was all she thought about. More and more and more and everything was what her body desired.

His back hit the ground and she was straddling him, kissing and sucking and grasping for more. She could barely see. She could barely taste. She could barely hear. But she knew. She knew what she wanted. More.

Her hands went to her chest. There was still clothing over her body. That was unacceptable. Her hands flew to her back and she tried unbuckling it, but her hands were grabbed before she could, holding them behind her in place.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Fu blinked a few times and crouched down on her ass, relaxing her body. She looked around. She was in a living room, bare except for furniture and a TV. There were no pictures or personal touches, like the house the six of them lived at before leaving hidden leaf. There were also people there. In fact, everyone was there, including Kurotsuchi's dad. And except for her face, she was completely covered in the purple sludge, which was getting wiped on the floor.

And Naruto was underneath her, pretty much completely covered in the same sludge. And he was also smiling humorously. "Looks like someone needs a shower," Naruto said.

"And a room," Kurotsuchi said with her head in her hand.

"And some water," Fu laughed out, her voice cracked and scratchy. She pushed herself up into a stand and got some more of her bearings. Yugito stepped forward with her hands out, but Fu held her hand. "Got this," she said. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking in the faces of everyone, and laughing at the end of it.

They were worried for her.

That made her feel so good.

Mei stepped up from behind and tapped her on the shoulder. In her other hand was a tall glass of water, which Fu took and drank from greedily.

Temari stepped forward and took her hand. "Come on," she said. "We have to get you showered."

Fu nodded and allowed herself to be led away, turning back at the last second and waving goodbye to them. There were even a few half-hearted waves returned to her.

Walking around made her realize just how much energy she had. Waking up was like a cold shower; it shocked her senses into needing to do something. "Hey Temari," she said after they were out of earshot. "Do you and Naruto use the anti-pregnancy jutsu?"

If Temari was taken aback by the question, she didn't let it show. "Of course we do."

"Can you show me how to do it?"

"Erm… sure, I suppose. You don't… are you…?"

She nodded. "Kinda wanna try it. In fact, I kinda _really_ want to try to do it. Only if he's okay with it too, of course. God, I want him to be. I love him. I want him to love me."

Temari was nodding along with her brow scrunched. She couldn't tell if Fu was in her right mind or not. it was difficult to tell whether Fu was being abnormal or hyper-normal. "Well, uhm… good for you then."

Fu stopped and grabbed her hands in her own, staring at the girl in the eyes with a look of utmost importance in her own. "And I want you to be there too."

Temari blinked. "Huh?"

Fu shook her head. "I don't want this to be a couple of strangers sharing a husband. That's weird. Well, a lot of this is weird. But that's bad weird. I want to be okay with each other. No, that's not right either. I want us to like each other. Does that make sense? Is that okay?"

Temari looked away and retracted her hands, which were now slimy with Fu's cocoon sludge. "I don't…"

Fu took a deep breath and looked down, nodding her head. "Listen, if you're suffering for his sake, then please stop it."

Temari looked up, confused. "W-What?"

"This isn't going to work if you feel bad every time I kiss him or hold his hand or look at him, you know. If you're suffering through that so that he can feel happy, then just fucking stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Stop saying it's okay!"

"It _is_ okay!"

"Then are you going to be there when I have sex with him? _If_ I have sex with him, I should say."

Temari looked away uncomfortably. "I'm okay with you having sex with him; I just don't want to be there to see it happen."

"It's not like I'm asking you to participate."

"I didn't think you were."

"Then why not?"

"I… Don't…"

"Would it make you feel bad?"

Temari pressed her lips together. "I don't know. Maybe. Can we drop this? You're still covered in that shit."

Fu shook her head and crossed her arms. "It's not going to feel good for me if I know that you're not going to be 100% okay with it. And I've got a feeling the same goes for Naruto." After a few seconds of terse silence, she dropped her arms and hung her head. "I'm going to talk to him about it. You should too."

Temari nodded slightly and retook the girls hand in hers, leading her to the bathroom.

"How big is he by the way?"

Temari sighed exasperatedly.

"Like, am I going to have to prepare for something? Is he small? I'm okay with it if he is, by the way. I'm just going to have to help myself more along the way. But oh, wait. What if he's huge? I mean, I haven't really compared myself to other girls, because hey, anti-social Jinchuuriki over here, but I've got a feeling I've got a smaller vagina. Not proportionally, mind you. I'm just smaller in general. Do you use lube in that case? Should I use, like, a lot of lube. Or maybe just a little bit of lube. By the by, do you have any lube I could borrow?"

As Fu chattered on, Temari couldn't help but let a small smile come to her lips. She was an okay girl. Temari could see what Naruto liked in her.

00000000

1 day later

Kurotsuchi scowled at the mirror in disdain. Short, boyish hair; piercing eyes; plain, androgynous clothing. Mei might have had a point when she started talking about her less than feminine traits. Still, though, looking at the dress on the chair behind her, low-cut and with a big slit up the hem to show copious amounts of leg, she didn't think she'd have it in her to put it on.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't interested in the ultra-feminine stuff, but she wouldn't be caught dead in front of people she knew, much less the populace of the hidden rock. But then again… she might as well try it on, right? What's the worst that could happen?

With a sigh of finality, she removed her own clothing as fast as she could and shimmied into the navy blue dress Mei had bequeathed unto her and looked into the mirror.

It was a little baggy around her tits, but that was to be expected. In fact, feeling around, it was a little roomy around her ass too. Kurotsuchi shook her head in amazement at the older woman. Even at her age, she had been packing. Even so, bagginess aside, it looked alright on her. Maybe if she wore make-up…

There was knocking at the door, shocking her out of her thoughts. "You decent?" Naruto asked.

"Erm, yeah," Kurotsuchi said before her mind could understand what she was wearing. The door opened, showing a Naruto with bandaged hands and slightly more formal wear walking in. He didn't look like himself in a collared shirt, but he _did_ look more mature. Kinda really mature. And did he look taller too?

Kurotsuchi gulped her words down her throat and realized she was wearing the dress Mei gave her at the same instance Naruto did. They both blushed, though for completely different reasons. "Eh…" Kurotsuchi stalled. "I-I'm… Mei gave this to me," she finished lamely. "And…"

Naruto shook his head, cutting her off. "No, no, you look, like, good. Like, really good."

Kurotsuchi blushed and quickly got angry at herself for blushing. "Don't fucking bullshit me. I know I'm not 'filled out', like Mei. I look like I'm a crossdresser."

Naruto had to stop himself from laughing. "What? Like how? You look beautiful."

Her face went from blushing to a full red. How was he able to say that shit so easily? He wasn't even aware of it. She hated that. "Aren't you… god fuckit. You're with two people at once. _Two_! And you still say that shit to me."

He hung his head with a heavy sigh on his lips. "I really like you, but I sometimes I really hate talking to you. You want me to lie? Sure, okay. You look fucking ugly. Like something that isn't even human and super fat. There, you like that?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "You know I don't."

"Well what do you like? What do you want me to do? You've been pissed at me for a while now and you don't tell me what's wrong. I can't read your mind."

"You really don't know what I'm pissed at you for?"

"Of course not! You don't talk to me anymore."

Kurotsuchi blinked. "You're not that dense, are you?"

Naruto paused and looked to the ground. "Temari?"

She wrung her hair with her hands and looked at him like he figured out an elementary riddle after puzzling it out for half an hour. "Of course Temari. I _liked_ you. Like… I _really_ liked you. I was crushing on you so fucking hard and you were too – don't deny it! And then you went and fucked some chick you knew next to nothing about. You didn't even… Gah!" she threw her hands up in the air and turned around.

Naruto breathed out, closed the door, and leaned against it. "I won't say I'm sorry. Because I'm not. Not really. I love Temari. And she loves me." Kurotsuchi scoffed at that, but Naruto chose to ignore it for now. "I did like you. Fuck, I still do. Oh, and by the way, this is me being the most honest I'm capable of being right not. So, yeah, there. I still like you. I think it's romantic, but… I don't know. I want to spend more time with you. I really, really do."

Kurotsuchi's nose crinkled up and her eyes squinted, water percolating at the corners. She turned around. "You're not playing fair, you know that? Whenever I think about you and her and Fu… I feel like my heart's getting stomped on. It fucking sucks. I hate it."

He slowly walked forward, hands out. "I can't help you with that. I love her. I love them both, actually. I'm not going to break up with them for you-"

"Didn't ask you to do that," she mumbled.

He paused to close his eyes and collect his thoughts. He put his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to be happy. I want everyone to be happy. But… I can't make you happy. Only you can do that."

Kurotsuchi looked away and shoved her body away from his hands. "It sounds like you're trying to induct me into some fucked up cult or something. Why can't things be normal? Why can't we fall in love and that be the end of it?"

Naruto shrugged. "Because that's not the kind of people we are. Besides, it isn't even that complicated. You're beautiful. I like you. Oh, and the announcement is happening in an hour."

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "I'm aware of that, thank you very much. Now, kindly exit. I need to do make-up."

One of Naruto's eyebrows went up. "You do make-up?"

"Just leave," Kurotsuchi said heavily, already turning away to her mirror.

Naruto nodded to himself and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

"Horndog."

He nearly shouted out in surprise as the sudden comment from his side. As it was, he let out a slight whimper and threw his hands up in between himself and the sneaking person, only to realize it was his wife. Not only that, but it was the wife that most accurately fit the role. "Hey Temari," Naruto said, breathing out.

"For a ninja, you're not very aware of your surroundings," she said, pushing herself off the wall she'd been leaning on. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her body well.

He liked it.

Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down to kiss her, planting his lips on hers. He quickly pushed down and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue past her lips to play with her tongue. Pressing her against the opposite wall, he held her tighter as one of his hands reached down and grabbed her ass like a handhold.

Temari tapped him on the shoulder and he broke off. "As much as I might like what that could lead to, we're going to be late if we start."

Naruto came in closer again, whispering in her ear "We've got an hour."

"And I like to take my time," she whispered back, planting a kiss on his cheek and grabbing his hand to lead him around the house. "Anyway," she said "you're putting the moves on Kurotsuchi now?"

He shrugged, squeezing her hand. "I don't really have any moves to pull. I'm just myself."

"That's the problem," she said, smirking "you're sweet enough that anyone would get magnetized to you just by talking to you."

"You're going to give me a bigger ego than I already have."

"Is that possible?"

"Good point."

After a couple seconds of silent walking, he pulled her into a bathroom suddenly and shut the door. "Listen," he said, tapping his finger on his arm "I love you. And not just because we have sex. I like talking to you. I like… being with you. You're smart. And you think about a lot of things that I don't even think to think about."

She quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "What's this about?"

"I don't…" he grabbed the back of his neck with one of his hands. "I don't want you to suffer for me. If you're not-"

"Ah," Temari interrupted, putting up a hand. She closed her eyes and nodded to herself. "I guess Fu really does know you, doesn't she? When I was walking her to the shower, she mentioned something like this could happen. And I… I don't think I'm suffering for you. Honestly, when you're with her, smiling and laughing and having a good time, I feel good. Because you're feeling good. And then she kisses you or grabs your hand and… I get jealous. Like, that sort of jealously is well deserved, in my opinion, but I still feel good because you're feeling good. I've been wrestling with this for a bit now and…"

When she didn't say anything for a few seconds, Naruto tilted his head down to look at her. "And what?"

"And… next time we have sex, Fu's going to be there. And… Fu's going to be participating."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "Uhm… are you sure about that?"

Temari hugged him close and leaned her head on his chest. "Of course not. My emotions are weird and I can't figure them out, no matter how much I try to think it through. Solid, actual, things happening will help, I think."

Naruto tucked her head under his chin. "Only if you're okay with it. And you have to be honest with me. Not just thinking about yourself, you get it?"

Temari nodded, "Oh, you won't have to worry about that. Now come on," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. "I want to get there early. You don't exactly have a good track record for these kinds of things."

Naruto smirked. "Guess I can't argue against that one."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

All three of them were embarrassed. That much was for certain. Neither did any of them know how to initiate contact, verbal or otherwise. It was a cozy room with the low light and a medium sized bed shoved in the corner, of which, all three were currently sitting on the edge of. The tension in the air could have been cut with a knife.

They were all back from the announcement to the village about the specifics of the new treaty. There was a bit more unrest in hidden stone than the other two villages they'd gone to, but that was to be expected. The populace was already starting to feel some of the good effects of it, like significantly reduced trade barriers or no-conflict agreements. But at the top of the kage tower, where it had been announced, there stood three of the members with an unspoken sense of tension with them. And now, at night, back at Kurotsuchi's house, in Naruto's assigned room, the three of them sat.

"So uhm…" Naruto started off unsurely, "how do we start this?"

Naruto was in the middle, between Temari and Fu. Temari peered to the side of him at Fu and said "Do you, uh, want to go first or…"

Fu shook her head, a great, huge, nervous smile spreading over her face. She couldn't meet the other girl's eyes. When she first proposed this scenario she didn't think that the way it was playing out was the way it would play out. Namely, just how uncomfortable she was. This wasn't the air she was hoping for. Then again, what was she hoping for? "I'll just watch you guys for a little bit. Is that okay?"

Naruto and Temari looked at each other. Naruto shrugged. Temari accepted that by nodding her head down. "Okay, well, just… hop in whenever you feel comfortable."

Fu gave a slight nod and sat at the foot of the bed, cross-legged.

Naruto reached forward and grabbed Temari's hand in his own. Her fingers and palm were soft and long. She had a strong grip, but she was gentle almost in her entirety. He leaned down and kissed her softly, bringing up his other hand to the back of her head to pull her in. They closed their eyes and got lost in each other. Their tongues darted out and started playing with one another. Suckling and tonguing each other's lips and mouth almost until they were sore.

One of Naruto's hands reached up and grabbed one of her breasts, causing her to gasp from the suddenness. She smiled and looped an arm around his lower back so she could pull him closer. It couldn't have been more than three or four minutes and Fu wasn't sure if they were aware she was even there anymore.

He reached down with both hands and grabbed her ass with his palms, lifting her up and onto his lap so that he could hug her to his body while wrestling with her tongue. She grabbed his back and head while his arms writhed up and down her body, grabbing and holding any part of her that he could.

He reached to the back of her neck and grabbed the zipper of her black dress, pulling into down to just above her ass crack. She leaned back momentarily to remove her arms from the dress and got right back in, shimmying her way out of it as much as she could until she had to stand up and let the rest of it fall to the ground. She stood there, bare to the world, with Naruto and (to the side) Fu drinking in her body's curves and dips. Naruto stood up and started unbuttoning his shirt as quickly as he could. His eyes were hazed. There was one thing and one thing only on his mind. He wanted to fuck this person until she couldn't think anymore.

She walked forward and pushed him onto the bed with one hand just as he got out of his shirt. He was sitting down as she unbuckled his pants and pulled them down in one motion, freeing his wanting cock.

"Oh, fuck," Fu whispered, leaning over to peer as his dick. Both of them started slightly at hearing her voice, making it obvious that they _had_ forgotten about her, if slightly. Fu straightened her back out and blushed a little bit. "I mean, it's huge, isn't it?"

Temari and Naruto shared a look. Naruto turned back to Fu, a slightly embarrassed smile on his lips. "Is it?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Fu said exuberantly, "I mean look at it. It's huge!"

Naruto looked down at Temari. "It's not too big, is it?"

Temari shook her head. "I don't think so. It's not small, I know that much."

"But it's… like… I could barely get two of my fingers in me. How the hell is that going to fit?"

"It's going to hurt like hell," Temari said gravely. "At first. Then, after a few times, it gets awesome."

"Aw," Fu said.

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked. "You said you liked our first time!"

Temari looked a little bit to the side. "It's like… okay, I can't really put it into words. It felt good in a sort of emotional way, but it also felt like I was getting stabbed."

"But you were moaning."

"Yup," Temari said, nodding while still mere inches from his cock, holding the base in her hand. "That wasn't good moans."

"Oh," Naruto said, looking down a little bit. "Umm… sorry about that."

"No, no, hun, don't be sorry," Temari was quick to add once she realized she might have been making him feel bad. "We didn't know what we were doing. Besides, I'm pretty it was going to hurt no matter what happened."

"Did you do a lot of foreplay?" Fu asked.

Temari and Naruto shared another look. "A little bit," Temari said, squinting as if to remember. "Honestly, there was a lot of emotions going on at the time. I can't really remember."

"We usually do more foreplay now," Naruto said.

"Yup," Temari said. "Foreplay and lube."

"Lots of lube."

Fu's eyebrows scrunched. "You're doing anal?"

"Oh god no," Temari said quickly. "I would never be able to take that in my ass. Look at that thing."

"Are you sure it isn't too big?" Naruto asked.

Temari shrugged. "I'm not even sure if it's big. It's the first one I've seen."

"Should we measure?" Fu asked.

Temari and Naruto looked at each other. "Maybe later," Naruto said. "I'm kinda really horny right about now…"

"Yeah, yeah, right," Fu said quickly. "Don't let me get in the way. You guys can get your, um, get on."

Temari looked back down at his dick. It twitched a little bit as she started to play with it, stroking it up down playfully. "Hey, why don't you try it out some?"

"What?" Naruto and Fu asked synchronously.

"You _said_ you wanted to have sex with him," Temari said with a bit of a husky voice. "Don't tell me you're chickening out."

"Okay," Fu said, holding a hand up. "I get what you're trying to do. But for the record, I'd be okay with it either way."

"Prove it," Temari said simply.

Fu clapped her hands together and rubbed them together. "Get ready for your socks to get rocked off."

The girl got up from the bed and knelt down next to Temari, looking at his dick like it was an alien. She grabbed the top of it and started rubbing it up and down. "It's so hard," she said.

"Yeah," Temari said, "That's the point."

"There's no point," Fu said seriously. "It's round on the top."

Temari blinked as she caught the joke, trying to stifle laughter afterwards. It wasn't funny because it was funny. It was funny because it was bad. And all three of them knew it. And all three of them had slight smiles because of it.

"Okay," Fu said, taking a breath. "Get ready for the blowiest of jobs."

Naruto nodded. "Awesome. Let's get to it."

Fu, not wasting any time, pulled her head down and engulfed the head of his dick with her mouth, swirling her tongue around his head while suckling it. She pulled back after a second or two and started licking his dick from the base to the top slowly, making sure to trigger every nerve she could on her way. She fisted the base and started jerking it up and down while she kissed and licked the crown.

That morning, Temari didn't think she would be impressed at someone else's blowjob ability when targeting her boyfriend's cock. Now, she was. "Are you sure this isn't your first blow job?" she asked.

Fu took his dick out of her mouth with a pop and looked back at her. "I've read a lot of books," she said defensively.

"Smut books?"

"Not only."

Temari looked at Naruto. "How'd she do?" she asked.

"Pretty sure that's a loaded question," he responded.

"I'm not going to get jealous," she said with a slight pout.

He shrugged. "It was good. I liked it."

"More than mine?"

"Hun…"

"I know hun, just enjoy yourself. I was making a joke."

"Oh, god," Fu said. "You two have pet names for each other?"

"Does hun count?" Naruto asked. "That's basically a nothing word."

"It's making me want to gag," Fu said jokingly.

One of Naruto's eyebrows rose. "Well it's making _me_ want _you_ to gag… on my… cock," Naruto said in his husky voice at first before losing confidence and fizzling out.

Temari nudged Fu. "He's also really bad at dirty talk."

"What are you talking about? I'm great at dirty talk."

"You basically just start babbling gibberish at me."

"It's hard to focus on words when I'm fucking you!"

"I'm not asking you to!"

"But you like it when I talk dirty."

"That doesn't mean you have to do it."

"Yes it does!"

"Is this part of the routine?" Fu asked, looking between the two. The air wasn't hostile, but she could feel an argument in its earliest phases. "If so, should I start accusing people of actions taken against me?"

"Nope!" Temari said, grabbing the base of his cock once more with maybe a little bit too strong a grip. "We're having sex!"

"Awes..ssome," Naruto said through grit teeth, doing his best to not show any pain.

At realizing she was causing him some consternation, both Temari's face and grip softened. "Oh, I'm sorry hun, was that too hard?"

Naruto closed his eyes and nodded a little bit.

"Well," Fu said lowly, getting back into a sexual atmosphere. "I have an idea as to how to make it better."

She lowered her mouth back on the tip of his penis, kissing the tip lightly at first before going all around the shaft with her light pecks. Her tongue stretched out to as far as her mouth would allow and coiled around his, by then, drying cock, coating it in slurpy spit. She engulfed the top of it in her mouth and bobbed up and down, one of her hands on his thigh to keep her steady and another jerking his cock up and down.

Naruto leaned his head back and did his best not to audibly groan. Fu's mouth felt like a pussy and he was loving every second of it.

Temari, for her part, was brewing things up on her own. She got up from the ground and pushing Naruto fully on the bed. Before he could voice any words of surprise, she was straddling his face, pushing his mouth against her wet cunt. "Lick," she commanded.

He summarily grabbed her thighs with his hands and pushed his head up further, immediately plunging his tongue as far as it could go up her hole. There was neither preamble nor prelude. He was a man on a mission. He was going to eat to his and her hearts content.

As his tongue was plumbing her depths, Fu was doing her best to suck on his dick while simultaneously relaxing her throat. She liked to read. Little known fact about her. It made sense with the lack of friends that she turned to books, but that wasn't quite relevant. What was relevant was when she accidentally bought a book filled with smut. Ever since then, her curiosity had been ignited. And turned out that quite a lot about sex had been exaggerated, or at least what she'd interacted with thus far had been so. And so, she was relaxing her throat and try something that was near universal from all the books she'd read.

She paused for a second or two at the zenith of his penis to take a deep breath and slowly descended on his cock and, using his thighs as handholds, she practically forced her way down, entrapping his dick in a tight velvety vice that was hotter than the sun and wetter than the ocean. He started bucking his hips upwards to cram, in vain, even more penis down her throat than was possible, all the while pushing his head up to furiously lick, suckle, tease, and slather every inch of Temari's pussy.

Temari's eyes clenched and her breathing hitched. It felt like every piece of her was in her pelvis, knotting together and desperately waiting release. When he latched onto her clit, all her cylinders fired at once and the knot that had been building exploded everywhere at once. She saw stars against her eyelids. It took all of her just to remain breathing, forget a sense of balance. She fell to the side, a panting, twitching mess, leaving Naruto to focus squarely on the sensation of Fu fucking her head up and down on his cock.

After a few seconds, she released his cock to get some fresh air in her lungs and dived immediately back in, understanding that his inadvertent bucking meant she was doing something good.

Oh so very good.

When she dived back in and swallowed his metal hard piece of man meant, she felt a hand go to the back of her head. The pause for breath had edged his orgasm slightly, but it wasn't difficult to get back into it. It would have been a very high level of heaven to be perpetually in the situation he was in. the feeling of her vice-like throat working his dick up and down was almost enough to go crazy over.

It wasn't long before he felt the building sensation of his sperm begging to be released. And when it did, both his hands went to the back of her head and pushed it down, his hips thrusting forward of their own accord as he deposited his load directly down her throat. For a second or two, he held her there before his muscles gave up and he fell backwards on the bed, his dick pulling out of her mouth with a wet schlick, leaving her blinking in slight confusion.

That was one of the weirdest, funniest, sexiest, most strange experiences she ever had. And she was also horny as all fuck to add on to it. But, looking at the two collapsed blondes, she was a little bit okay with not acting on that urge at the exact moment. She stood up and unbuckled her various articles of clothing, shucking them to the side without a care for the world.

Naruto pushed his torso up, holding his weight with his elbows and looked at Fu, his eyes getting their sense back into them. "That was," he paused to breathe in and out "single-handedly, the most intense orgasm I've ever had."

One of Temari's hands rose to the air. "Here here," she said in agreement. "And that was just foreplay."

"Why did it feel so much better?" Naruto asked.

Fu plopped down between them with a giant smile on her face. "Because things are more fun when they're done together!" she chirped.

Naruto had to cover his mouth to suppress the chuckle. She sounded so carefree and innocent. It was so quintessentially Fu that he shouldn't have been surprised in the slightest. He laughed a little bit and turned over so he could hug her to his chest, tucking her head under his chin. She snuggled into him as well, enjoying the sensation of feeling another person's skin on her own. It was a sensation that was almost addicting. Not addicting in the carnal pleasure sort of way. Addicting in that she didn't think she could ever want to vacate that spot.

Temari turned over and wrapped her arms around Naruto as well, sandwiching Fu in between them. It was strangely comfortable. In fact, if the night were over, all of them might be able to comfortably sleep that way.

Fu hummed in contentment. "So that's what sex is like."

Temari's chest thumped up and down from the restrained laughter. "Sex? That was just foreplay. And you didn't even get off either. If I were you, I'd be downright indignant."

For a couple of seconds, Fu was silent, trying to formulate her opinion as carefully as she could. "You sure you're going to be okay with that? You know, with the, uh… the sex" Fu asked.

"Of course," Temari said, as if the answer were obvious. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you did seem pretty on-the-fence when I talked to you about this…"

Naruto nodded. "Same from me."

Temari shrugged and hugged them closer. "I dunno. I guess group sex just had a bad rap in my mind. If we both love Naruto and he loves us back, I don't feel bad at all. Which is good, I suppose. Honestly, the jealousy was starting to eat at me, even though I tried my best to ignore it. Now… now I'm just happy that he's happy."

Fu turned around, something of a feat considering how tightly she was held between the two, and looked Temari in the eyes. "It's not just that," she said. "It's not just that we love him and he loves us. I love you too. I'm not sure if it's strictly romantic or not, but… but you're my friend. You're kinda quiet and don't talk much, but when you do, I know you're being honest. I like that. You don't give me fake smiles like the others in Waterfall. You're my friend. I love you too."

Temari blinked a few times in astonishment. The girl's mouth was like a gate to her heart and every time she opened that gate, her feelings flowed through like an untapped well. It wasn't something Temari could find fault with. In fact, she just smiled at the girl and tapped her forehead to Fu's. "Love's a strong word," she said. "I think I'm only ever going to use it for Naruto, but I'm happy you feel that way."

Before Fu could say another word, Temari closed the distance and entrapped the girl's lips with her own. It was a chaste kiss, almost to the point of innocence, but it also was a turning point for all three of them. It wasn't just two loving one. It was the three of them loving each other.

And then Temari deepened the kiss, pushing her tongue into Fu's mouth excitedly. Her hands started roaming Fu's body, gripping and grabbing what she could. It was different than with Naruto. With them, it was almost like a give-and-take. When she was with Fu, Temari was taking everything for her own. Fu's body, her tongue, her attention. It was intoxicating.

Naruto, shocked for a few seconds at Temari's suddenness, followed suit and planted his mouth on Fu's neck and collarbone, licking and suckling the sensitive skin, enjoying the tiny moans and yips that followed the tracing of his tongue. His and Temari's hands roamed over her body like they were hungry, grabbing and rubbing any exposed skin they could, paying extra attention to her modest chest and taut ass.

Temari's hand reached further down until she could feel Fu's excitement, her own eyes opening from surprise feeling of her nether regions. Had Fu not been with them the entire time, Temari might have sworn that Fu had splashed water all over her pussy. Playing with her labia, Temari might have been fooled into thinking Fu was part fish with how sopping wet she was. The bud of her clit rolled between Temari's fingers with ease. The feelings were so intense that Fu had to break away from Temari so she could moan. She'd masturbated before, but this… this was a step above the rest. No, it was more than a step. A giant leap forward with no consideration as to what was behind or in front of her.

One of Naruto's hands found its way down to her vagina too, playing with the tight hole at the bottom while Temari rubbed the critically erect nub on top. Pushing even a little yielded him results as her vagina opened for his middle finger. It might have been more difficult if she were any less wet, but considering she was already making a stain on the bed, there wasn't any problem with that.

Instead of moaning, Fu had taken to gasping in short gulps of air, like those were the last gasps she would ever be able to make. If blowing him was a new and exciting experience, then this was that but on crack. How could it feel so good? How was it that her muscles weren't moving properly; weren't responding to her commands?

And they liked it too. Temari didn't know that that was how it felt to make a girl cum her brains out. It was exhilarating watching the girl pitch and moan and the feeling of her nub between her fingers was sensational. Before then, Temari hadn't even the slightest inkling of being interested in someone of the opposite sex. Now? Now she couldn't get enough of it. Was this how Naruto felt when he was rubbing her out? Somewhere in the back of her mind she had always felt slightly guilty that he was doing it for her, but now she understood.

It was fun.

Naruto's member was responding to it too. It had wilted from having cum, but the newfound sexual situation was enticing it upwards. It wedged up her ass crack neatly. Having some fun, he started humping it against her in rhythm with his finger thrusting up into her. Her body was locking up from the stimulus. She was about to cum, he could tell. Smiling, he suddenly thrust his finger as far as it could reach up her vagina and hooked it inwards, feeling a spongy material at the front, where he tugged and up and down on.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. All of her muscles contracted at once as her brain fried itself inside out. She started spurting cum out in small streams, arcing across the room before Naruto's hand covered the rest of her entrance, where it splashed back onto the bed.

As her muscles relaxed, Temari took her head in her hands and started kissing her for all she was worth. Fu was barely responsive, which got her going even more. Naruto removed his hand from her sopping entrance and went back to hugging her, kissing her shoulders and neck while she was getting tongued by Temari.

Fu eventually got her breath back and managed to get a little bit of a buffer room from the two of them. Her eyes were wide open, taking in every aspect of the ceiling with awe, unable to understand what happened. "That… my… god, words aren't working any more. That good, er, that was good. Sooo~ fucking fantastic. Is that what sex is like?"

Again, Temari chuckled. "That was just foreplay. That wasn't even sex."

One of Fu's hands went to her forehead. "Christ… I think if I have sex, I might die."

"Well," Naruto said, "it was probably better since there were two of us."

Temari nodded. "I guess it really is more fun when you do it together."

Fu patted Naruto on the side, still somewhat panting for breath. "Why don't you two have some sex. I'm just gonna… get my breath."

Temari chuckled in an almost menacing way. She shook her head at Fu and climbed on top of her, hand reaching down to cup her vagina with ease. Fu tried to brush her away, but she was still weak from orgasming her sense of reality away. When Temari brought her hand back up, it was covered in Fu's slick juices. There was even a small strand of cum arcing from her index to middle fingers. "No time like the present," Temari said huskily. "Trust me, you're going to want to be as wet as possible for this."

Fu looked over to Naruto's member, standing tall at attention, skin shiny from the strain it was putting on itself. It looked downright intimidating. Fu gulped. "I don't know. I'm kinda…"

"Scared?" Temari offered.

"I don't that's the right word for it. It's like… the feeling you have right before you do something big, but also what you want to do desperately. Like when I was learning to fly. I'd resolved to jump off a cliff and hover my way down, but… it was still jumping off a cliff. I was scared but I wanted and needed to do it."

"Anticipation, then?" Naruto asked, turning over on his side.

Fu nodded slightly. "I think that's it. But… more intense."

Temari pushed herself up, hands on either side of Fu's head. "That's okay and all. If you want to wait a bit, we won't cajole you. But it _is_ something that _you_ have to do. We can't do it for you."

Fu closed her eyes for a couple seconds and opened them, showing a fiery determination. "You know what? Fuck it," she said before tackling Naruto to the side so that she as on top of him.

When her knees were next to his chest, she reached down and grabbed his engorged cock with one hand. "Literally," she said huskily as she lowered herself on top of him. The tip of his cock hit her well-lubricated pussy and stalled. "Shit," she murmured out before straightening her back and trying to get the angle right.

Temari crawled up to Fu and moved the girl's ass forward a little bit with her hand. "Here," she said. "It's a little bit of a challenge to get it right the first time."

Fu sighed a little bit. "There goes being spontaneous."

"A for effort," Naruto chipped in, a huge smile eating at his face.

Fu's face softened before tightening back up when her pussy notified her that his dick was making headway. When the crown of his cock made its way into her tight cunt, her face screwed with pain and all her muscles except the ones needed to hold her up weakened. Temari caught her by the arms and put one of her hands on top of Fu's pussy, playing with her clit. "I wasn't kidding about it hurting," she said in a supportive way.

The shorter girl's face started to gradually unscrew itself as she lowered deeper and deeper, taking the rod all the up the hold of her vagina as far as it could go. Her walls were stretched to the limit even despite the excessive lubrication and it took her all to raise her hips even the slightest amount. Even Naruto had to close his eyes. "It's so… fucking tight."

"Yup," Fu said quickly, not even opening her eyes. "And you're like… god, how is it possible that you're this hard? It's like I'm shoving a rock up my cunt."

"It's all for you," Naruto said lowly, pausing to gutturally grunt.

Temari to the side of them, stifled a giggle. Looking at his sex-face while not getting pounded by his cock was more amusing than arousing.

Fu's eyes opened, blinking to the world as she finally bottomed out and her hips pressed against his. Her vagina felt like it was wired up to electricity, jolting her with differing signals every time she so much as twitched a muscle. It hurt, but it felt good. It was a sensation that Fu had never felt before and didn't want to feel again. Too confusing.

But, as she was blinking her eyes open, Naruto took the initiative and cupped her face, bringing it down to his to where he could kiss her. It was just the thing she needed. Something to take her mind of the mixture of ice and fire brewing in her pussy. Her tongue got lost in his. Her mind stopped thinking and started feeling, doing. Nothing in her life could have prepared her for that one experience.

And then he shifted his hips down, drawing his cock over so slight downwards.

Fu's eyes shot open with a gasp. The pain was there, but it was greatly diminished. She grabbed his head with both her hands and stared him in the eyes as she drew herself upwards, inch by inch and slower than a snail, then downwards just as slow, rising and falling with his own hips to meet in the middle. The electricity that had dogged her was now pressuring her to go faster, reach greater heights, churn and churn until everything was destroyed or something was created.

Up and down. Up and down.

Up and down. Up and down.

Up and down. Up and down.

Up and down. Up and down.

Upanddownupanddownupanddownupanddownupanddown.

Her breathing started to oscillate, switching between long ragged breaths and short gasps. There was no consistency. There was only pleasure. There was only looking into his eyes as their hips slammed together and they lost all sense of decency. There was nothing.

But there was everything.

Their hips started moving so fast that the sight of his cock slamming into her pussy was a blur to Temari. They were gulping and biting their lips and gnashing their teeth and grunting in pleasure. It was like they were animals. Sweat was pouring from her brow and her legs were starting to shake.

Naruto flipped them over so that he was on top and positioned himself so that the backs of her calves were on his shoulders and her pussy was pointing straight upwards. For the few seconds it took for Naruto to put his cock back in her vagina, they caught their breaths, smiling like lunatics.

He pushed his dick in slowly, getting used to the new position. When it pushed further past where it had been when she was doing cowgirl, she gasped. It was so fucking deep that it felt like she was getting her insides pushed aside just to make way for his cock, but in a good way. The way he was positioned allowed him to use his entire body weight to slam his cock into her vagina as mercilessly as he could. He had all the power of a bucking bronco as he fucked her.

The ramp up took almost not time at all. Over and over he shoved his cock in and over and over Fu felt the electric feel of sex climb to greater and greater heights. It was slower than cowgirl but every push was so much stronger.

Realizing her muscles were tensed up, Fu allowed them to relax almost to the point where she was limp and let him pound her. This had an immediate effect where she could focus solely on the sensation of her pussy getting plowed like a field.

Every time he pushed in, Naruto felt himself getting closer and closer to orgasm. He and Temari were about the same height, so their sex had more of them being equivalent energy users. But Fu was so small that it was easy to be dominant. It was easy to shove his cock into her pussy with his entire body weight. And it was so good looking at the face she was making, screwed up in all the pleasure of the moment and moaning like she was the only person in the universe.

And then her eyes shot open along with her mouth in a silent scream just as her core locked up and her pussy started spasming. That was the breaking point for Naruto. With a few last, great, downward fucks, his hips locked with hers and his orgasm exploded. A loud, guttural moan escaped his lips as he held that position for a scant few seconds before his legs gave out and he slipped down to his knees, nearly falling completely on top of her.

For a few seconds, nothing was said. The two of them merely looked into each other's eyes with shit-eating smiles on their faces. Naruto dove down and started kissing her eagerly. Her arms wrapped around his back and they rolled over to their side.

"So that's what sex is like," Fu murmured, breaking off their kiss.

Naruto nodded. "Just about."

Light clapping coming from the side of them brought their attention back to Temari. "Good show, you two."

Naruto pushed himself onto his elbows and locked eyes with her. "Don't think I've forgotten about you. Come over here, I'm gonna to fuck ya."

Temari giggled at him a little bit. "I think I'm good for the night, thank you very much. Besides, you've already cum twice. Remember that time you went three in a night? Your dick hurt the entire next day."

"The hell?" Fu mumbled. "You've only been together a couple of weeks. How much have you two been fucking?"

"A lot," Temari said gravely. "I knew sex was supposed to feel good, but I didn't realize that it felt _that_ good."

"Hey honey buckets?" Fu asked, tapping Naruto's leg.

He grunted.

"How sturdy are your shadow clones?"

Naruto's head perked up with a wide smile on his face. "As long as you don't punch them mid-sex…" At saying that, Naruto put his hands up into the shadow clone seal and five equally naked Naruto's spouted into existence just off the bed.

"Okay, nope!" Temari said firmly, crossing her arms into an X to emphasize her point. "None of you are putting anything in my butt. That's a dick-free zone, thank you very much."

As quick as they were formed, they vanished in puffs of smoke. "We can experiment later," Naruto said tiredly.

"I kinda feel like you're fielding the possibility of anal sex. And I just want to let you know that if you put something up there, I'm cutting it off."

"Okay, okay, I got it," Naruto groused.

"Why don't you want to try it?" Fu asked innocently.

"You do?"

Fu shrugged. "I want to _try_ it at least. See if it feels good, you know. If not, then that's that, but if it does feel good… mama's gonna have some fun with your shadow clones." She said, punctuating the end with a giggle and an overly suggestive wink.

Temari rolled her eyes and crawled over to the end of the bed to grab the sheets and blankets that had been haphazardly shoved to the side over the course of their love-making. "You guys do what you want. I'm tired."

Naruto grabbed her in a hug and pushed her to the mattress, followed closely by Fu. "I love you two," he said seriously.

"Me too," Fu said with a content smile.

Just as her eyes closed for the night, Temari couldn't help but let a small smile grace her lips. "You guys are going to get me all mushy."

00000000

The door to their room slammed open with an impressive crash and bang. Even as they were startling up from their sleeping positions, they could hear the labored and panicked breath on the invader's lips. "Hurry up!" she shouted, turning on the lights and momentarily blinding them. "We are leaving!"

"Yugito?" Naruto asked, rubbing the light from his eyes. "What's going on?"

"They have Bee!"


	19. Chapter 19

Naruto, Temari, and Fu burst into the living room, still adjusting their clothing as they did so. They had the look in their eyes only seen in people who were exhausted but hyped up on adrenaline; slightly bouncy and jittery and in need of action. In the room was just about everyone else involved in the contract, including the leaders or representatives of the nations as well as Kurotsuchi's dad, Kakashi, and Sakura.

Of everyone, Ai was the most on edge, followed closely by Yugito. The three had walked in while he was in mid-sentence. "-ere is no need to wait. We have impetus, means, and intelligence. We have to GO!" he shouted.

Jiraiya held up a hand to hopefully calm the irate body-builder. "That's the problem. We've never had that before. Hell, I don't think we've ever had _one_ of those things before. This is the most classical form of a trap that I've ever seen and more to the point, he's probably already dead. Remember Gaara? He died in less than two hours. What hope does Bee have?"

"He's my brother," Ai spat out vindictively. "You can't expect me to sit around with both thumbs up my ass while he's out there, tortured or dying for all we know."

"That's exactly what we expect," Onoki said flatly. "He's dead. Get over it."

Ai's nostrils flared and Yugito's jaws clenched and unclenched rapidly. There was already the beginnings of a fight. If it went physical then all of Iwa could potentially be in danger.

"Everyone!" Temari said as forcefully as she could, drawing all attention on her. For a few seconds, she eyed them down, saying nothing. "We need to calm down and think this through."

"There's nothing to think about," Onoki said. "We must not take action."

"If not now, then when?" Ai asked sardonically. "Bee's one of the strongest ninja in all of Kumo. If they can take him, they can take anyone. Who knows when your Jinchuuriki are in danger? Who knows if they already haven't been taken?"

"You're not THINKING!" Temari shouted, making everyone flinch slightly. Rare was the sight of Temari with a raised voice. Pinching her chin with one hand and looking to the ground, Temari began considering the situation. "What we know is that one of the Jinchuuriki, Bee has been taken. From the conversation, I assume we also know his whereabouts. Considering how fast it was that Gaara… died, from his extraction, Bee could already be dead."

"Almost assuredly," Onoki mumbled.

"Not… necessarily," Temari said slowly. "Let's say this _is_ deliberate that we know their position. Then they _know_ that we _know_ it's deliberate. And if we _know_ that it's deliberate, then killing their bait would disincentivize us from entering their trap."

Everyone took a second to consider her logic. "That's a… stretch," Shibuki said.

Mei shrugged. "The chance is there though."

"Are we forgetting that if that's true, then it _is_ a trap?" Jiraiya asked. "No if's, and's, or but's about it. If we go, we're putting ourselves in danger."

A heavy silence fell over them all, only broken when Temari whispered "And if it were Naruto?"

Jiraiya looked up, eyes slightly wider. He didn't say anything, deciding to look to the side. Temari looked at Shibuki next. "And if it were Fu?"

He also deigned not to answer.

"And I know if it were Yugito, I would be going as well," Temari added. "This isn't a choice we should be having to deliberate on. If there is going to be peace, then there must be something greater than just deciding not to war with each other. We also have to help each other in our times of need. And if this isn't theirs, then I don't know what is."

Saying that, the kage of Suna turned tail and walked out the room. "Where are you going?" Onoki asked.

"First, I'm going to get the location of where Bee is," Temari said, advancing down then hall. "Then I'm going to go save him."

Yugito and Ai were next follow, then Fu, Mei, Shibuki, Onoki grudgingly, and Jiraiya. Soon it was just Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, Kurotsuchi, and Kitsuchi.

"I'm guessing you're not going?" Naruto asked Kurotsuchi.

The girl shook her head. "I would, but I _just_ got out of the wheelchair. I'm still pretty wobbly."

"'Sides," Kitsuchi added gruffly. "Three Jinchuuriki, four kage plus another village leader and a Sannin. That seems pretty overkill to me."

Kakashi and Sakura walked forward, both clapping Naruto on opposite shoulders. "Don't worry," Sakura said. "We're coming with. Itachi could be there and I'm pretty sure Kakashi's the only one who can kill him now. Plus, you're all going to need a medic to patch you all up."

Naruto nodded and walked out with the two of them, leaving Kurotsuchi and Kitsuchi waiting for their return.

00000000

The room Sasuke was entering was dark, as could be expected. Just about everything in Orochimaru's lair was dark, as it seemed he was averse to more modern lighting and also had a propensity for wide-open spaces. For most, it was disconcerting, leaving with people a feeling of being watched from just outside their available perception. Sasuke, however, feared nothing. Not anymore.

The first thing he saw when he stopped in the middle was Orochimaru's eyes cracking open a fraction of an inch. Nothing else could be seen aside from the slight flickering of a torch to their side that did little to light the room "Hello Sasuke," he said in a raspy, oiled voice.

Sasuke nodded. "Why have you called me here?" he asked, hand on his sword.

Orochimaru chuckled, if it could be called that. It sounded more like he was choking down a small rodent, but that was beside the point. The Sannin stood up and paced around the room in slow, languid steps. "I just got a notice from a little birdie. The akatsuki are ramping up their operations like nothing they've done before. And to that end, they've set up a small trap to ensnare their remaining prey."

Sasuke blinked. "And what does this have to do with me?"

The snake chuckled again. "I'm sure you've heard the news. Your precious little friend is one of those Jinchuuriki they're aiming for. And he's stupid enough to walk into that trap."

Sasuke shifted one of his feet back and squinted at his teacher. "I'm still lost."

Slowly, Orochimaru walked into the light again. His body was beginning to reject itself. He was going to need a host soon. Something unsaid between the two of them like a sword hanging above their heads by only a single horse hair. "Well… your friend also has an affinity for making others follow him. And my, does he have some… powerful friends with that treaty in place."

"It'll be a warzone." Sasuke stated.

Orochimaru nodded. "Both sides will weaken each other and then I… well, I can sweep through and claim what's left."

Sasuke's jaw clenched. "Right now you're too weak to do that."

Orochimaru began laughing. Horrid, wretched laughing. "You're right. I am too weak… right now."

For thirty seconds, not a single muscle was moved. Sasuke waited for him to take an action and he just… stood there. Eyes peering at him like they knew something he didn't. Swaddled in bandages and with a creeping smile carved in his face.

And then all hell broke loose.

00000000

Madara gazed dispassionately at the slumped-over body beneath him, chest barely rising at all. As far as opponents go, this one was one of the harder to take down, surprisingly enough. He'd thought that the age of truly great ninja was gone.

It would appear not.

Large, dark-skinned, a penchant for rapping, tattoos, and strange clothing. The eight-tailed Jinchuuriki was nothing if not an interesting fight.

Madara looked behind himself and at one of the last remaining Uchiha, Itachi. The remaining members of Akatsuki were in a cavern big enough to hold the Gedo statue. Even Nagato was there in his 'true' form, flanked by Konan and the six other paths of pain.

"I just can't get it out of my mind," Madara said listlessly. Itachi perked up and gave him some slight attention. "Remind me again as to why we have to do this? Surely, our forces are enough to capture a mere three Jinchuuriki, two of which are barely trained. This trap seems needless."

Itachi's eyes were half-lidded with disinterest. "And remind me, who killed four of our members? You said it yourself, for as great as your plan is, whatever it is, the alliance jeopardizes it. You even left Hidan and Kakuzu before you could confirm a death. You are powerful. But your arrogance flows from every pore of your body. It's unseemly."

One of Madara's eyebrows twitched upwards. To him, it was like an ant raising its voice. Inconsequential to the point that any insult levied against him provoked no reprisal. "They were expendable. And they seemed to be able to get the job done. I didn't see the need to be there and watch them do it, like a father trying to see if the child he raised was good enough at a particular thing to gather attention. In this case, I was disappointed."

"And you'd be just as disappointed if you tried to capture those three on their turf and were surprised to find that they're more competent than you would have liked to imagine."

"If they put up a good fight, all the better," Madara said, laughing slightly. He sighed once he stopped laughing. "Though… we should try to avert needless bloodshed. There's no real point to what we're trying to do if we go about, killing willy-nilly."

Their conversation evidently over, Itachi walked towards the entrance of the cavern, a fair distance away from everybody, where Kisame was sitting with Samehada on his lap. He had a bad look on his face. "Hm," Itachi hummed to announce his presence. "I didn't think you could make that expression."

Kisame sighed. "I was sold on the sale pitch of a world with no conflict. But this…" Kisame turned back to the cavern where the rest of Akatsuki were. "This is too much. It's getting too… weird. And this is coming from a guy who can transform into a shark."

When Itachi didn't say anything, Kisame looked up to the man, shocked to find that his face was set staring off into the distance. Itachi didn't 'do' absent-mindedness. Kisame gripped the hilt of Samehada. "What's wrong?"

Itachi blinked, coming back to his senses. "I'll be gone for a few hours. Our prey should be here at morning. I'll be back by then."

Itachi took a step forward, but was stopped when Kisame grabbed his other ankle. The shark-man had a dangerous look on his face. "Why do I get the sense that you're lying?"

"Have I ever lied before?"

Kisame shrugged. "Could just be that you're so good at it that I never caught you in the act."

Itachi considered that briefly. "Let's hope that you never do."

Kicking his leg away from Kisame, Itachi continued on his way before blinking out of existence in a body flicker.

Kisame shook his head and gripped Samehada tighter. Why was he even doing this anymore?

00000000

Everyone's faces were grave as they looked at the medium-sized fire. For shinobi, operating in the dark, smaller fires were used, if at all, but their party was significantly larger and there was almost no danger if they were to get noticed, so a decision was made to make a bigger fire, make a big meal, and perhaps raise moral.

If moral was raised, then it was quiet moral. A lack of knowledge on the akatsuki made plan-making alarmingly difficult. It was such that Jiraiya, the self-appointed head of the team, was at a loss for what to do other than to bum rush with enough force to stagger them, grab Kirabi, and get the fuck out.

He gave everyone a small tag that anyone could detonate, detonating the rest of them; a signal that Bee was safe. And he also intonated that such a mission was deadly. Deadly enough to kill if they weren't careful, powerful as they were.

And then they made dinner and were sent to rest for the impending battle that would happen on the morrow. All their journey, however, Naruto couldn't help but to notice Yugito. Worry gnawed at her very being, it was evident to him even if not to anyone else. And so, when all the hot food was consumed, he bedded down next to her.

They had set camp in a small clearing in the forest. The Akatsuki's hideout was about 7 miles away, which they would trek in the early hours.

Yugito's head was firmly affixed upwards, looking at the break between the forest canopy at the twinkling lights above. The moon was full and shone dull light upon the whole clearing. They were all spaced out as far as sleeping arrangements went, so there was an expectation of privacy between them. After a few minutes of silence between them, Yugito sighed and turned her head towards him.

"Don't you want to be with them?" Yugito asked. "This could be your final night together. It's a dangerous thing we're doing."

Naruto shrugged in his sleeping bag. "They can take care of themselves… Wait, no, that sounded kind of mean. I'm not dismissing them; they're just very self-sufficient. I love them and they know it. I don't have to be with them to let them know."

"Sounds pretty mature for someone who just began one of those relationships last night."

"Well… that's the way things are."

"But _how_?" Yugito asked, sitting up so she could look at him properly. " _How_ can you know? Do you know her past? What she wants to do? What she's done? _How_ can you know you love her? And to also be so confident as to announce it to the world and act like you've been with her for years? And that applies to Temari too. It's been less than two goddamn weeks and you're already acting like you're on your honeymoon."

Naruto sat up too, his sleeping bag sliding down to his waist. Again, he shrugged. "I don't know."

"That's not…" Yugito scrunched her face up and looked away, her tone falling. "That's not a good enough answer."

"I think," Naruto said as he laid his back against a tree and tilted his head to look at the stars and moon "that it's because I believe them."

Yugito copied Naruto's actions next to him, looking up at the same stars and moon. "Could you elucidate?"

"I could, if I knew what it meant to do that."

Yugito blinked slowly. "To explain something. Don't be vague just because you can. Explain to me what you mean."

"Well, don't use big words just because you can. I get that enough from Temari."

"Naruto…" Yugito said dangerously.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. And… yeah, I believe them. When they say that they love me, I believe them. I don't doubt it. I know it. And because I know it, I don't have to confirm it every hour, every night, every day of my life. They know how I feel and I know how they feel and… we're okay with it."

Yugito contemplated that for a moment or two. "You defy all expectations," she said finally. "You're like a person that shouldn't exist. Your very being is infectious. It crawls inside of you and festers and bites and gnaws until you finally realize that you have nothing left to do but to believe in you. I hate it."

"…Wait, what do you hate? You lost me there. And why do you believe in me? I've failed so much."

Yugito sighed. "It's not the fact that you've failed. It's the fact that you keep on getting back up. You keep on resolving to be better, get better, kinder, even smarter. You don't give up. Not ever."

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Not ever. But, that's not that uncommon."

Yugito shook her head too. "No, I guess not. Still though, everything you do makes me believe in you. I can't even explain it properly. It's a little bit upsetting."

Her last sentence hung over their heads like a lake full of water, just waiting to splash down and drown them both.

"I think I'm in love with you," Yugito said breathlessly, not even looking away from the twinkling heavens. Rather than confessing her love, it sounded like she was confessing guilt.

Naruto nodded. "I had an idea."

Yugito took in a deep breath and looked down. "I guess I was a little bit obvious, wasn't I?"

"I wouldn't say that. At least you realized it. It took me a while to realize that I didn't love Sakura; really love her anyway."

Another punctuated silence. "I can't believe it," Yugito said. "I thought I was going to be without love, companionship my entire life. Or at the very least, I didn't think I would ever feel this way again. And yet, here I am. To someone a decade my junior. Another Jinchuuriki. From another nation. Almost always happy-go-lucky. Striving always onwards."

Naruto nodded along with what she was saying. "So what now?" he asked.

"That depends on how you feel about me."

"You know how I feel about you. What it really depends on is what you want to happen now."

Yugito shook her head. "I might be wrong. I need you to tell me how you feel."

Naruto edged his way a little bit closer to her. "Well, when I first met you, I thought you were scary. I guess that's obvious. You tried to kill me."

"Threatened. That's not the same thing. And it was a hollow threat."

"I didn't know that at the time," he said with some feigned indignation. "Anyway, I thought you'd be the hardest to work with. Temari's practical. Fu's all over the place. Kurotsuchi's annoying. Mei was… Mei. But you… you were scary and threatening and strong. I didn't know how I was going to interact with you.

"And then I realized… that you were really, really scared. Like, scared of so many things and you tried to cover it all up by being as brave as you could be. And you were successful for a little bit. So full of pride and gusto. But in truth, you were scared of getting close to people who might die on you. Who might betray you."

Yugito had wrapped her arms around her legs by that point. "You know… I don't feel like an adult when I'm around you," she said, sniffling a little bit. "For so long, I've felt like a scared little girl. I'm so afraid all the time that I can't even begin to explain to you in words. And for so long, I've held all the responsibility of all the lives of my peers and I'm always scared something might go wrong; that I might go wrong. But I never wanted to let them down. I didn't want them to hate me. And I've been so alone. The only person I've ever loved betrayed me and the only person who believed in me was stuck in my body for as long as I lived. I feel like… there are all these great people standing at the same level as me, respecting me, looking up at me, and I… I don't feel complete yet. I feel like I haven't finished growing."

Naruto clapped a hand on her shoulder, a great beaming smile brightening the woods and her world. "That's good," he said. "Saying that you're done growing is like saying you can't get any better or do any more. And that's the same as giving up. Never give up. Never stop growing. You'll never be complete. And that's okay."

Yugito looked at him, face wet with tears and mouth slightly agape. Her heart, which had been aching for so long felt… lifted up, for lack of better words. Like there was a hole there and now there wasn't.

"And as far as being afraid," he continued "that's okay too. As long as it doesn't stop you from acting, fear is good. It reminds you of what you are, or how you are. If you acted without fear, those around you might be put in danger."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And finish," she said desperately. "How do you feel about me?"

Naruto nearly laughed at her question. "I love you, of course. I know that you're scared. But you don't have to be. Not anymore. Not while I'm around."

Yugito looked away. "You make it sound so easy. But in truth, we've been tossed about like play-things." She took a second to sigh deeply. "We're in over our heads. All of us combined could barely take two of those monsters on. And we're rushing into their nest."

"And?"

She gulped. "We might die… but if we don't do this, I won't be able to live with myself."

Naruto wrapped an arm around her and held her close. "It's okay to admit that you're a nice person."

Yugito's head rested on his crown as she snuggled closer to his warmth. "I'm not mean. I try not to be, at least. But I don't think I'm nice. I usually keep people at a distance. A lot of the people I work with think I'm icy. Sometimes I say harsh things."

Naruto chuckled a little bit. "At the very least, let me think of you as nice. You can think of yourself however you want, but I think you're nice. You've been nice to me."

"Remember when I threatened to kill you?"

"It was a hollow threat, remember? Besides, actions are always going to be more powerful than words."

He looked at her and she looked back. Their eyes met, already dangerously close. Their lips were held only a few inches away, locked in a miasma of indecision.

"Don't kiss me," Yugito said, closing her eyes and putting her forehead on his. "After this," she said in barely a whisper. "If everything goes okay. If we all get out of this fine… then."

"Right…" Naruto said. "Then. Now come on. Big day ahead. We should try… to get… some sleep," Naruto blinked a few times in confusion. Yugito wasn't responding. No, it wasn't just that. It was like she was stock still. Even more than a statue could be.

Naruto turned his head at the clearing. The flowers weren't moving. The leaves didn't rustle. It was a like a painting.

A painting with an unknown figure inside of it.

Every neuron in his brain fired at once, telling his body to run or jump or start a shadow clone or do anything that he could but he couldn't. From the neck down, his body refused to move. He could still feel everything, but his muscles wouldn't so much as twitch.

The shadowy figure moved forward to him. The only thing discernable was a set of glowing red eyes that pierced through the darkness and past his soul.

"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed, struggling against the hold on him to no avail. The figure got closer and closer, moving with no discernable angst.

It shook its head. "Close, but no." His words were familiar, but it wasn't Sasuke. As he got closer, more telling facial attributes became apparent. Tear trenches, narrower cheeks, differing hairstyles. It wasn't Sasuke.

It was his brother.

Naruto blinked. His brain couldn't tell whether it should feel anger or fear, so it settled with a gut-churning combination of the two. "Itachi?" Naruto whispered, already knowing the answer.

Itachi nodded. "Don't try moving. You're in a genjutsu right now."

"Why are you doing this?!" Naruto practically yelled. "Why are you like this? Why are-"

Oddly enough, he was interrupted when a raven with a Mangekyo Sharingan eye flew into his mouth and disappeared down his stomach.

Naruto coughed deeply, expecting to be choking. "K-Kyuubi! Save me!"

No response.

Itachi shook his head. "Not much point in trying to dispel the genjutsu now. I don't have much time; either here or on this mortal coil. Your fellow Jinchuuriki is being held in the deepest part of the cavern. If you truly wish, you can prevail, but the cost will be quite high."

The adult Uchiha turned to walk away, but Naruto shouted "Wait!"

Itachi paused and turned around, quirking an eyebrow up. "Yes?"

"What are your plans? Why are you doing this? Where's Sasuke?"

Itachi turned and looked up at the full moon, strangely pensive for a deranged serial killer. "My plans are forever changing. I'm doing this for the leaf, and also for me. And I don't need to know where Sasuke is. Soon, he'll be finding me. And perhaps you afterwards."

And then he left, making sure to leave Naruto unconscious before he did so.

00000000

Last night

" **So are you just gonna sulk there all night or are we going to talk?"**

Kurama lifted a single eye to look at Chomei with obvious contempt. Kurama was still held back by the cage, forever unbreakable, whereas Chomei was practically free to do as she pleased. In between the two were the mind-states of their hosts, locked in an almost eternal, sexual embrace. Soft moans emanated from the both of them and they writhed slowly.

" **What's there to talk about?"** Kurama asked.

" **Well, there** _ **was**_ **that one time you tried to kill yourself with your host."**

Kurama's eyebrow twitched. **"I'm over that."**

" **Oh, are you?"**

" **Yes!"** Kurama snapped back.

After a few terse seconds of silence between the two of them where the only sounds that could be heard was that of a few stifled gasps, Kurama sighed. **"Why do you like that one?"**

" **Who?"**

" **Your host,"** Kurama ground out aggravatedly.

Chomei did the tailed beast equivalent of a shrug. **"Dunno."**

Kurama sighed and shook his head, turning back into himself to hopefully get some more shut-eye, which seemed to be the only thing he was capable of doing.

" **She's happy."**

Kurama lifted his head. **"Huh?"**

" **She's made the decision for herself to be happy and she's stuck with it. And not just her. She wants me to be happy too. She wants everyone she likes to be happy. She's a girl that's gone through so much in her life and all she wants is to make others smile. She's a weird one, but I like her."**

Kurama blinked slowly. **"Right…"**

" **Something on your mind?"**

Kurama stood up, displacing some of the water on the ground. **"You're damn right. She's your warden and you** _ **like**_ **her? What, have you lost whatever remained of your sanity?"**

" **It's better than hating her."**

" **Oh, well, fucking… great for you, huh? It feels better to love than hate so let's all just hold hands and get along. Give me a fucking break."**

" **You know,"** Chomei said slowly **"I think I remember you being the loudest in support when Asura said just about the same thing."**

" **That was then. Things've changed."**

Chomei considered that for a moment or two. **"I don't know. I feel like the winds are changing. I also feel like you kinda want your host to like you the way Fu and Yugito like me and Matatabi."**

Kurama leveled a stare at Chomei. Neither said anything. The sexual embrace of the lovers between them was reaching a fevered pace. Fu was moaning loudly and Naruto was grunting gutturally. **"Looks like you don't know me very well, then."**

Kurama turned his head and fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

It was an unassuming cave mouth at the bottom of a cliff. Trees pushed through the near-sheer face of the rock and vines hung down those trees, giving the mouth natural camouflage. Even so, it was difficult to imagine that inside that cave was a collection of the strongest ninja known to man and beast.

The cliff didn't look too big, so no summoning, and no giant tailed beast mode. Just classic mano-a-mano fighting.

Which was why Jiraiya was scared.

He looked at that cave mouth with a cold hand of fear grabbing his stomach, something he hadn't felt since the third ninja war. Even with most of the kage by his side, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was about to go up against something he couldn't even imagine. Akatsuki already demonstrated that they could use the tailed beasts as they willed and also collected nearly all of them that were left.

This wasn't going to be a good fight.

He looked to the side at his apprentice. Mei was right next to Naruto, whispering something only he could hear. The boy's face was grim and set in determination. With that boy rested all the hope of the world. Jiraiya just wished that it wasn't too much.

He just wished his apprentice wouldn't be corrupted by what was inside.

Jiraiya waved his hand in the air to still the idle whispering and chatter, then pointed at the cave. He bolted into a run, leading the way forward with the other four kage to his left and right and the remainder of the party in a line following them; an arrow formation.

For every single one of them, the air they were breathing was dense and settled in their stomach. Even those hardened by battle weren't immune to this. It was something only an insane person couldn't be affected by.

They entered the mouth of the cave. It would have only been more complete a scene if there was writing above it saying 'abandon hope all ye who enter'. It was foreboding to the extreme.

Jiraiya unsealed a torch that shone with strangely bright fire, illuminating the tunnel they were traveling down. And as of yet, it was just a normal cave. No writings or ritualistic scenery. There wasn't any red and black décor nor was there any trace of human. It was just a normal cave.

Jiraiya started to let doubt cloud his mind. Was this the right cave? Were they wrong and that the akatsuki had already moved on? Should they even be doing this?

And then the open tunnel turned downwards. It wouldn't have been a problem to traverse had the way forward not been flooded. The only way through was to swim.

"I don't like this," Jiraiya said. "Of what we know about Akatsuki, we know about one Kisame Hoshigaki. Wading into water is suicide."

"Bah," Onoki grumbled. "I can't swim. Not at my age."

"Can we bore through?" Sakura asked. "It's just rock, after all."

Ai shook his head. "We don't know how built out this place is. It could go all the way up for what we know. If we set aside rock, it could cause a cave-in. And that's something I would rather avoid."

"I've an idea," Mei said deviously. When all eyes were on her, she continued. "This Kisame… I'm assuming he can breathe water, yes?" When Jiraiya nodded his head, she grinned darkly. "Can he breathe bleach?"

00000000

Kisame sat cross-legged on a small boulder scarcely bigger than himself in the middle of a lake of water. The cavern was about as big as a tailed beast and went all the way up, breaking through the top of the cliff and allowing a portion of sunlight through. Surrounding him was somewhat deep water; terrain devised solely for him and his abilities. And at his back was a darkened tunnel leading further into the cavern. From what he could understand, all their fighting potential clashing with all of akatsuki's fighting potential would put the whole cavern at risk as soon as the big techniques started rolling out. So, there was a bit of a progression. Stages that they would have to get completely through before they could get to the next one.

And he was the first.

"Well, gosh darn, being the first trial must mean the top boss thinks so highly of me, huh?" Kisame muttered to himself darkly. At least he had the terrain advantage to him and Samehada was recently fattened up on some chakra from the Gedo statue. But it was still six kage level shinobi and three Jinchuuriki. If he wanted to survive, he had to go balls to the walls from the get-go.

He was broken out of his musing when a pinkish dark bubbly mixture started to seep through the entrance to his watery cavern. He couldn't tell if it was super acidic or super basic, but it definitely wasn't something he wanted to swim around in.

They were devious if nothing else.

From that pinkish mixture a figure rose, tall and beautiful and so incredibly terrifying to the lesser man. Mei Terumi of the hidden mist had decided to grace him with her presence.

"Well, well, well," she said as she started walking forward on top of the water in a somewhat sultry manner "I _was_ in the mood for some shark fin soup. I'm so glad events have conspired in my favor."

The pink substance spread with every touch of her foot to the surface of the water. Behind her, the rest of her party started sprouting up as well, evidently exempt from the harmful effects. They walked around the cavern as opposed to right up to him, surrounding him completely.

They were going to attack en masse. It wasn't a strategy he couldn't see coming. After all, it wasn't as if they were operating on a very pressing time schedule. They were playing it safe and who could blame them?

Not him. Especially not when he would have done the exact same thing if he were in their position.

Mei took a breath to speak some more, probably jests or an invective, but his eyes shot open with a suddenness that stilled her breath. He wasn't in the mood for idle chatter.

It was time to fight.

His chest swelled with an ungodly amount of water, which he started spewing out immediately. He turned around and around, trying to pin each and every one of them down before they could react.

He failed at that. Before he got even one full revolution, a dark blur appeared behind him with its fist cocked back and ready to turn the shark man into pulp. Ai had the time to smirk, knowing it would be a quick fight, only to get broadsided in the shoulder by a flying shark-sword.

He fell to the water, trying to beat the beast off of him while everyone else did damage control. The water level was rising quickly. Enough that Kisame was already submerged in it with a dimpling of the water surface directly above him being the only indication of his position.

Any advantage they had in numbers was being shaved off with every passing second. There was really one person who was used to fighting in and under water.

"Go!" Mei shouted, waving her hands in the direction of the exit to the cavern. "I'll take care of him. Get going already!"

Naruto wanted to stay, but was already grabbed by the shoulder by Kakashi and pulled away before he could even get a word out. His brain was racing. He knew he wasn't going to be of any help in that environment, but even a word of encouragement was turning out to be too much.

"Mei!" he shouted desperately, knowing she wouldn't turn to look back at him. "Live!"

While everyone was shuffling out of the cavern, Mei Terumi let a small smirk come to her lips. When did she become such a softie that only two words comprising a single order would make her want to follow it?

Her mouth puffed with lava release before spitting out truckloads of viscous acid that spread through the water like ink. This was going to be a battle of attrition. To see if she could eat away enough of him before he could eat away at her.

It was going to be a tough one.

00000000

They popped through the water of the exit coughing and spluttering, having swam hard enough to not be targeted by the shark-like sword employed by Kisame. They all made it through, though.

All except two.

Naruto's eyes widened. "Where's Fu?" he asked desperately.

Everyone looked around, but no one had an answer. "Or Ai?" Onoki asked. The old man shook his head ruefully. "And it was his idea too."

"He's not dead," Yugito said. It was obvious though that worry began eating away at her when she realized the huge man wasn't with them.

Onoki crossed his arms over his chest. "Can we go back now? It's obvious that this mission is already at a failure level. We could cut our losses and be gone without anyone knowing."

"You!" Yugito growled out, pointing an accusing finger at the old man. "Just shut up! Shut up for once in your miserable fucking life. He's not dead. And we're going forward."

"He is most likely dead, girl. And don't think you can go around ordering me about." Onoki's eyes bore into slits as he growled at the taller woman.

While they argued, Naruto was struck silent. His world was crashing around him. Not again. Not Fu.

"What a lovely bunch you are."

Everyone turned around to look at the intruder, an unassuming man sans the swirled orange mask covering his face. "So this is the shinobi alliance I've been hearing so much about. I'm not impressed."

His lackadaisical attitude made everyone feel uncomfortable. It was always the crazy ones who were most powerful, after all. "Who are you?" Jiraiya asked, body tensed for signs of trouble.

The unassuming man shrugged his shoulders. "Does it really matter? I'm not here to fight you. At least not yet. I just wanted to meet you all in person. See what I'm up against. And man, does this not bode well for you."

Yugito's nose curled up. "Is Bee still alive?"

The man nodded. "Barely. To be honest, I didn't think you all would take the bait. Maybe one or two of you, but all? You must have a true charisma by your side for that to work."

Everyone's eyes shifted to Temari at one point or another at that remark. "A little bit," Yugito said, regaining her cool. "Why are you doing this?"

The man considered it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. This is for your benefit though. For everyone's."

Shibuki sighed. "Why do the big guys always have to be cryptic?"

Naruto took a deep breath and gulped the bile that was rising from his stomach. "It doesn't matter what you put in our way or who you send to fight us. We will prevail. And you will lose."

The mans' head tilted to the side. "Those are fighting words."

"Damn straight," Naruto said with a shaky smile.

He shrugged. "Your will against mine, then. Anyway, I'll be going now. If any of you live to see me, then good for you. But you sure as hell won't like what I'll do to you when we meet."

A void formed out of his eyehole and sucked him in to it, leaving not even a trace of behind.

Before anyone could comment, a splash of water behind them and the sound of bodies slumping against rock caught their attention. "Heya," Fu greeted, waving a hand at them. On the ground coughing up a storm and with a few huge gashes across his shoulder was Ai.

Leaving Ai to his faculties, Fu took a few energetic steps forward and wrapped her arms around Naruto, pressing her lips to his. She disengaged to see a shell-shocked Naruto staring at her with disbelief. On her neck were twin patches of skin that were grayish and undulated somewhat. "Did I mention I can breathe underwater?" she asked. "It's a bug thing. Anyway, I need to go help Mei. You all save Bee. Later."

And with that, she was back under the water, wading towards Mei.

Sakura was already helping Ai while everyone was still in slight shock at her appearance and subsequent disappearance. Naruto chuckled a little bit. "Guess we don't have to worry about her after all."

He felt like he wanted to pitch forward and yell in triumphant happiness, but it was neither the time or the place for that to happen. This was a rescue mission. And it was time to get a-rescuing.

"We can't take our time with this anymore," Naruto said loudly, so that everyone's attention was on him. "Mei and Fu are buying us time right now and even if they are strong, we can't risk something happening to them. We run right through everything, grab Bee, and get the fuck out."

Jiraiya sighed into his hand. "I hate it when I don't have enough information. Okay, you heard the kid, time to skedaddle."

Ai got up from the ground, coughing up the remaining water in his lungs and scratching at the newly formed skin covering his shoulder. That shark sword took a big bite out of both him and his chakra. It wasn't something he wanted to try out again. "Right… we have to get Bee back," he mumbled, shaking his head to get focus back.

Onoki pinched the bridge of his nose. "And now this one can barely stand. I should have stayed back in hidden stone."

Jiraiya took the lead of the party as they ventured farther into the cave system and farther away from Mei's and Fu's plight. Yugito's face was set in a firm look of grim determination. Nothing was going to stop her from proceeding forward, Naruto could tell.

At some point, Sakura grabbed him by the elbow and migrated the both of them to the side. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

Naruto nodded immediately. "Yeah, of course I am."

Sakura glanced at the rest of the group, her gaze settling on Temari's back for slightly longer than the others'. "There's a reason why couples aren't allowed to go on missions together. There's a much higher chance of people getting emotionally compromised. And I don't think I have to explain why that's so much worse when you're the one getting compromised. Are you going to be okay? Even if Temari gets hurt?"

Naruto's lips pressed into a line. That was the one question he did not want to get asked. The last time he saw someone get hurt, he flew into a rage and hurt Mei. The fact that he did that was still eating at him. He was scared about what might happen to them, but he was also scared about what he might do if something _did_ happen. He never wanted to lose himself again. That feeling of wholly unchecked… rage. It was ungodly, both in its power and its feeling.

He nodded his head. "I'll keep my cool."

Sakura had a worried look on her face. She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and rejoined the rest of the group. There was a light up ahead that they were running to. The next trial was awaiting them.

The cavern they ran into was much more built-out than the other one. It was rectangular and large, about the size of a football field. Torches lined the walls, which were cut smooth, giving the room a ghastly feel. The party was floored by the sight in front of them, but none more so than Jiraiya.

In front was a man withered away to a husk inside of a strange spider-like metal contraption that held him in the air. And floating next to him was a woman with dull blue hair and wings made of origami paper. Both of their gazes looked dead.

"K-Konan? Nagato?" Jiraiya sputtered out. He looked like he was being visited by specters.

Konan blinked and tilted her head slightly towards Nagato. "I certainly did not expect to see our sensei with the group of kage."

Nagato shook his head in agreement, not saying anything.

Jiraiya took a step forward while everyone readied themselves in case the situation went tits-up. "W-What happened? I thought you were d-"

Jiraiya had to rapidly jump out of the way of paper shuriken that sliced up the ground he had been standing on moments prior.

"If only we had time, sensei," Nagato mused. His voice was cracked apart. He could barely be understood. "I'm sure you could understand why we're doing this. As it is now, we need the Jinchuuriki. Hand them over and everyone else goes free."

Jiraiya shook his head. "I can't let that happen."

Nagato's eyes narrowed. "Then you all die."

The ground in front of him erupted and six figures jumped out of the destruction, all pierced through the face with various spikes and rods. And in the middle of their formation…

"YAHIKO!" Jiraiya shouted, already able to comprehend what must have happened. The 'leaders' of Akatsuki surged forward, intend on destroying everyone and taking the tailed beasts for themselves.

Sakura and Kakashi ran forward first with Jiraiya and engaged with them. "RUN!" Sakura shouted. "Get Bee and get back as soon as you can! We'll hold them off!"

The remaining members shot forward, creating jutsu and punching things as hard as they could in trying to clear a way forward while Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Sakura ran interference with the rebels from Rain.

Everyone continuing, the kage, Naruto and Yugito, charged through the chaos and made it to the exit, where they didn't stop running. "This is bad!" Shibuki shouted. "They were heavily outnumbered."

"But we don't know if they were outmatched!" Ai shouted back. "Either way, nothing changes. Get Bee. Get out. Hope we're all standing at the end of it."

"That's a shit plan!" Shibuki counterpointed.

"It's all we've ever had," Yugito said lightly even past the intense running.

"We'll make it," Naruto urged.

"I'm getting mighty sick and tired of your endless optimism, squirt," Onoki chattered back, a scowl etched into his aged face.

"It's the only thing keeping us going," Temari added. "Don't make light of tenacity."

"There's tenacity and then there's foolishness."

"Same thing in my book."

Onoki turned to give Temari a piercing glare, which she responded by lifting a brow and smirking at him.

"Oversexed younglings," Onoki muttered as he turned forward.

They ran for a few more seconds before bursting through a curtain-like material into another room, this one the largest by far and also the most populated with various… things. Everything from furniture to weapons laid about and even a master bed was at the very end. In the middle of the room, from which everything centered around, was a man sitting on a chair reading a book. He had ancient red battle armor which was cracked in places and long black hair. His eyes had a strange purple ripple in them. It was very strange.

Those very eyes flicked away from the book to behold the entire group. He hummed in… what was it? Approval? Disappointment? Recognition? It was as tough to gauge the sounds he made as it was to read his face, which looked like it had been chipped from stone for how still it was.

"More of you made it than I thought," he considered. "Let's see… leader of waterfall, that's a surprise. Kage of hidden sand, quite young aren't you. Oh, and sorry about your brother. Kage of hidden stone, still alive after all this time. Kage of hidden cloud… just as full of fury in real life as in your pictures. Then there's the two-tailed and the nine-tailed. Both of you were more of a pain than I thought you'd be, but that'll be over soon anyway."

"Who are you?" Temari commanded.

"Madara Uchiha," he replied with no hesitation.

"Why are you doing this?"

One of his eyebrows ticked upwards. "That's a lengthy explanation. And the way I hear it, you're on a bit of a schedule. After all, you have a notion that all of you will remain alive after this is all over."

Temari's nose crinkled up in disgust. "Naruto, Yugito," she said. "You go forward. We'll hold him here."

Madara smiled and reached behind, taking hold of a long scythe that had somehow been out of sight until then. "That's a mighty big bit of presumption on your part, little one."

Onoki nudged her leg with his elbow. "If he's who he says he is-"

"Doesn't matter," she said, cutting him off. "I don't care who you are, what your plan is or anything like that. We're here to rescue someone you've taken from us. That's that."

Madara hefted the scythe onto his shoulder. "Why do I get the feeling you're painting me to be the bad guy in this scenario?"

"You murder people. You kidnap them. You unsettle countries and even destroy them in some cases. You _are_ the bad guy."

"Oh? And you haven't murdered people? Haven't put anybody under 'diplomatic protection'? Quit your pretentions of righteousness."

"I've always had a reason. To protect my village. To protect my family."

Madara smiled. "Well, you have your reasons. I have mine. Let's agree to disagree."

"I'm getting tired of this!" Ai roared. "Is Bee still alive?!"

Madara nodded, his smile vanishing. "It's the last room back there," he said while pointing immediately behind him.

Ai smiled as lightning crackled and raced up his body, super charging his senses and comprehension.

Madara whistled in appreciation. "Haven't seen that one before."

Ai appeared behind the man, surpassing the sound barrier as he did so and sent an elbow to the middle of his back, hoping to end everything before it could begin.

Madara shifted the scythe so that Ai's fist would hit the pole and spun around him, swinging the blade in a wide arc aiming for the man's head. Shibuki ran forward with water racing down his arms into vicious swords, followed by Onoki and finally Temari, just before giving Naruto a parting glance.

Naruto's jaw set and he looked down for a fraction of a second. "C'mon," he shouted, grabbing Yugito's wrist. "They gave us a chance!"

The two of them raced forward past and under the chaos of the fighting and headed to the supposedly final door to the final room. "Get Bee. Get out." Naruto repeated over and over as the darkness of the tunnel swallowed them up.

As soon as they entered, they exited into another room. The 'tunnel' was only about ten feet long and the reason for the darkness was because the only thing lit up in the entire room they entered was a giant statue with a wrap around its head that had nine eyes on it, six of which were currently completely open and a couple others that were partially open.

"So you did make it."

Naruto and Temari turned around, ready to fly into battle at a moment's notice. What they found was the man from before; the one with the orange swirled mask. "Though," he said, continuing on. "You appear to have lost quite a few companions since last we talked."

"Where's Bee?" Yugito demanded.

Torches along the walls flicked on and illuminated the rest of the room. Slumped in the middle of the floor underneath the giant statue was a dark-skinned man with blonde hair. His chest was barely moving.

"Hold him off," she muttered to Naruto before racing back to Bee. She slid on her knees the last steps and checked his vital signs. Once she felt a beating heart from his jugular vein a wave of relief washed over her. It was like there had been a shadow obscuring her heart and knowing that the man was alive washed it away. She looped one of his meaty arms around her shoulders and stood up, struggling slightly under the weight of the man. When she turned around she was treated to the sight of Naruto, alone, looking around him confusedly.

"He just… disappeared. Sank into the ground."

"Earth technique?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing moved. I think it was a genjutsu- LOOK OUT!"

Yugito turned around just in time to get a face full of fist. It was so forceful that it knocked her back and blurred her vision. Bee was left to slump back to the ground. The man with the mask stood where she had been previously, shaking his hand like he'd just partaken in a particularly powerful high five.

Naruto raced forward and threw a punch at the masked man, only to stumble forward when his fist reacted with nothing. Something caught him by his foot and swung him around, slamming him into the ground hard enough to crater it. He tried to summon the Kyuubi's chakra, but a fist with what felt like the weight of the world fell on his head, cratering it further into the ground and rendering him unconscious.

Yugito pulled herself up into a standing position, swaying slightly from her disorientation. Things were bad. This was bad. She wasn't sure if Mei and Fu could match up against Kisame. She wasn't sure if Jiraiya and the other leaf nin could match up against those two freaks. She wasn't sure if the rest of the kage could match up against Madara.

And she had a rising inclination that she was massively outclassed by the man in front of her as well, who either was a master at genjutsu, or knew an ability that made him intangible.

So, was that it? Was she done? Was everyone done? Complete and utter failure to do anything? Complete inability to do what she had set out to do?

Blue flames flickered up her body.

No.

She refused to back down. She _was_ going to beat the enemy in front of her. She _was_ going to drag Naruto and Bee and whoever needed it back out of the fucking wretched cave they were in. She _was_ going to save the day.

Because she _was_ strong.

The blue flames engulfed her and soon she knew only rage.

Rage and pain.

00000000

Sasuke walked out of the ruined cave, flicking his sword against the ground to get the globules of blood off it.

Orochimaru was dead and gone. And nothing was going to bring him back.

He looked at the green mountains as the sun peaked over the edge, sending orange god rays across the world. The air was chilled and stung his lungs as he breathed in. He closed his eyes and breathed in that sweet, cold air. It was freedom.

But he still had more to do.

One last thing and he finally had the strength to do it. The thing that had consumed him so much was finally about to come true.

Yes. He was strong. Stronger than anyone or anything before.

00000000

Yugito opened her eyes and sat up. Water was around her waist, up from how it usually was, barely enough to cover her feet. She lurched forward and covered her face in her hands and began to sob miserably.

She had failed.

She'd felt failure before, but this time… But this time she couldn't fail! She wasn't allowed to! There was too much at stake. Her mentor and friend, who she needed to save. Her love, who she needed to protect. Her role, a weapon to be used against the akatsuki.

She'd failed all of them.

Matatabi blinked and sighed at her younger charge. **"Oh, Yugito…"**

The woman in question took a shuddering breath and looked up, her eyes red and her mouth shut in a line. "Can you… Can you please just… not give me some piece of wizened, sagely advice that's so vague that it could hit any center of my meaning processes? Please? Please don't give me some comforting words that make it sound like it's not my fault. Can we please just agree that it is!?"

Matatabi slowly shook her head. **"Can't do that sweetie. Well, maybe the first bit I'll indulge you in, but I won't agree that the situation we're in is your fault."**

Yugito's lip quivered slightly and tears sprung from her eyes once more. "Just…" she grabbed her face and pitched onto her knees. "What did I do wrong? I did everything I could. I trained until I bled. I failed until I didn't. I did my best and resolved to do better in the future but no matter what I did, it wasn't ever enough! I FUCKING HATE IT! I FUCKING HATE IT SO GODDAMN MUCH!"

Matatabi nodded her head in kind with the woman who had just had everything she ever wanted taken away from her. Then she looked to the side a little bit. **"I never did understand why you couldn't get past the 'waterfall of truth'."**

Yugito took a slow, shaky breath and regarded the giant cat again. "What?"

" **The 'waterfall of truth', you never made it past that step. After that, you'd do battle with me and take my chakra to use as your own. It was a bit of a moot point since I gave it to you willingly, but I never got why you didn't get past the waterfall. Bee seemed to be able to do it no trouble, but you always confronted yourself and came away frustrated. No matter what you did."**

Yugito was looking at the distorted visage of her knees underneath the rising water. "It never talked to me. I never understood what I was doing wrong."

" **It** _ **was**_ **strange. I never understood what happened. I've thought about it so much. You seemed to know about the things that you lacked. You were emotionally stable. And yet you still had darkness in your heart that you couldn't confront that stopped you from moving forward."**

"I know that," she whispered. "I've never understood it. There's always been something… wrong with me. I can't figure out what it is. No matter how many times I think I've got it, I never do."

Matatabi stood up and started pacing around. **"As much as we talk, you never did tell me what got you interested in the kid. In Naruto."**

Yugito's eyes were half-closed and dour. The reality of the situation was starting to sink in.

She was going to die. And there was nothing she could do to stop it. And it was all her fault.

"He was nice to me."

" **Is that it? Many people have shown you kindness. Granted, not as much as if you hadn't had me sealed in you. But there have still been many."**

Yugito shook her head. "He's a Jinchuuriki too. He understands what it's like to be regarded as something to be despised."

Matatabi tilted her head in confusion. **"Then why not Bee? Sure, there's an age gap and he's a bit eccentric, but you've that with Naruto as well. Why is he different?"**

Yugito's lips were pressed in a line. Why was this being discussed? Did it really have to be? "I don't know," she said, shaking her head.

" **You've said many times that you want to protect him. Is that it? You want to mother him so he doesn't have to go through what you did?"**

"No!" Yugito regarded loudly. "I don't… that's not why."

" **Then why? Is it because he treats you normally? Is it because he 'never gives up'."**

Yugito continually shook her head. "That's not… I don't…"

" **You love him and you don't know why? Are your feelings so indiscriminate?"**

"You know it's not!"

" **Then give me proof!"**

The water was up to her stomach now. Matatabi was starting to shrink from having her chakra siphoned out. Even the chakra construct's eyes were getting heavy.

"He's happy."

Matatabi blinked. **"Excuse me?"**

"No matter what happens to him, he's happy. He… he knows… and he feels everything I've gone through. And he's not sad. He has people who love him and he loves them back. He's not… bitter. Not like I am."

" **Kitten… you're not bitter."**

Yugito shook her head. "Don't give me that. You know I'm bitter. I'm bitter and cold and mean and stern and inflexible. I've had my heart broken, but that's not an excuse to move on. I let that one experience stop me from moving forward with my love life. My first instinct is to threaten rather than to reason. I stick to the rules too much. I'm not… I'm not fun. That's the truth. You know it and I know it. I want to be strong, but more than that, I want to not be those things. And he's none of those things and better yet, he saw past my bitchy side and found the good in me."

Matatabi rested her head on her paws. **"Well, perhaps you are bitter. But what of it? Stern, cold, so what? Inflexible, who cares? Mean… I guess you** _ **could**_ **work on that a little bit more. But I think you're wrong if you say that he looks past those things. He's young, but he's got an extremely profound understanding of how people work, even if he doesn't know it."**

"What are you talking about?"

" **I've seen the way he looks at you through your eyes. He doesn't latch onto your good points and follow you around on those. He doesn't pretend like you aren't inflexible; he doesn't wince whenever you show your coldness or your sternness. He delights in them. There's a reason why I haven't killed him yet, you know. It's because he loves you. Not your good bits. Not your bad bits. He loves** _ **you**_ **. All of you. He's accepted your weakness and better yet, he's okay with it."**

Yugito breathed out slowly. Blackness was starting to edge her vision. There wasn't much time left. "Great… _now_ I know it." She paused and looked up at the ceiling of her mindscape, water rising up above her chest and licking at her neck.

And then her eyes opened wide in stark realization. "I've always wanted to be different. I always wanted to be the best me I could be. I realized my weakness but I never accepted them. I never wanted to. Is it… is okay to be weak? Is it okay to be stern and bitter and cold? If… no, someone accepts it. And if someone accepts it, doesn't that mean I can to?"

" **There's nothing wrong with being who you are, kitten. There never has been. There never will be."**

"And even so… I can also want to be different, right? I can want to change? I can be who I am and be okay with that. But I can also want to be something else and that's okay too."

The blackness that was eating away at her vision retreated. Her mind started clearing. The water level fell back down.

Yugito took a deep breath and let it out slowly, opening her eyes to the world again. She didn't know how she knew, but intrinsically, she was aware that if she took Matatabi's chakra, she wouldn't lose herself to anger or frustration or the feeling of being too weak. She wouldn't feel the shame of being who she was.

She was in complete control now.

"Matatabi, however much chakra you have left, I need what you can give me."

00000000

Sakura cracked an eye open, hoping that neither of the men in front of the statue would notice her. She'd woken up only minutes ago, prone, and with both her shoulders dislocated. She'd been trying to get some medical chakra worked down there to get her arms back in place, but the pain was making it hard to concentrate.

She was also listening to the two men; the one self-proclaimed Madara Uchiha, and the unnamed orange masked one. Trying to understand anything that the two were talking about was difficult to say the least. What she _did_ know was that it wasn't anything good.

"Where's Kisame?" Madara asked.

Obito stood in front of him and a whoosh of space displacement blurted out from his mask. Fu and Mei slumped onto the ground, both unconscious. "I don't know," he said. "He was gone when I got to the two of them."

Madara's eyebrows rose. "He took out a kage and a Jinchuuriki? Seems he was more impressive than I thought he was going to be."

Obito shook his head. "No. They were both standing when I got there. Battered, sure, but still standing."

Madara's eyes narrowed. "Did he run away?"

Obito shrugged. "Does it matter at this point? We have all the chakra from all the tailed beasts. When we can start the plan the next full moon."

"He had a lot of chakra from the statue. It could delay things. We should track him down just to be safe. Worst comes to worse, we have to wait a few months for the chakra in the statue to regenerate."

"And we can do that later. For now, we have some tailed beasts to extract. Come on, this should take a bit." Obito turned around and picked up Yugito and Naruto to put them with Fu in front of the statue.

"What about Nagato?" Madara asked.

"Dead," Obito stated simply. "Along with Konan."

Madara huffed. "Some prodigy he turned out to be."

"He also managed to stave off Jiraiya, keeping him away from you."

One of Madara's eyebrows rose. "And what could he have done to me? Not even the kage can stand up to me."

"I wouldn't look down on him if I was you. He's probably the smartest man alive right now. Most assuredly the most morally righteous. If anyone could figure out a way to take you down, it would be him… on that note, why did you let the kage live?"

Madara looked at the deposed states of the kage behind him. He'd carried them in the cave on a whim. "We're trying to create a new reality. Doesn't make much sense to murder the whole world while we're at it."

"No, but it would make sense to murder you."

Madara contemplated that sentence for a couple seconds before his eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?" he asked turning around, only to get struck in the chest by Obito. He immediately tried to snap the child's arm like a twig, but he couldn't. A bluish shadow was being sucked out of his mouth by Obito's hand, like a long snake made of smoke. The tail passed his mouth and he fell to the ground, all life gone from his eyes.

Obito slowly shook his head and allowed the soul of Madara to get eaten by the king of hell. "What a waste," Obito muttered before jumping up on the statue and starting the chakra removal process.

Sakura blinked a few times. Her arms were back in place and she was trying to get an understanding of what was happening. Evidently, there was a falling out, but she couldn't place why or how that falling out could have happened. And now, the masked man was taking Naruto's, Fu's, and Yugito's chakra all at once. And if the rates at which the chakra was being sucked out was any indicator, they didn't have very long.

She had to stop him.

But how?

Jiraiya and Kakashi were on either side of her. If she could heal them…

She looked up. There was the sound of talking on the statue's head. The masked man was talking to some strange plant monster. One half white and one half black. At least they weren't trying to kill each other. But that distraction was just what she needed. Waking Jiraiya up was her number one priority right now.

Her hand edged to her right, where the giant of a man was laying, green chakra racing down her fingertips.

Her hand touched the back of his neck, only for a bare, white foot to fall down on her wrist, stopping it in place and grinding down to the hard dirt.

"What's going on down there?!" The masked man shouted.

Sakura looked up at the thing that was crunching down on her wrist. It was some pale, nude-but-not-nude, humanoid… thing.

"You forgot to check if this one was out!" The white Zetsu shouted back.

"Just kill her then. I've got no patience for distractions."

Sakura's face scrunched up from a mixture of pain, frustration, and anger.

There was fire in her eyes.

Before the white Zetsu could act, she grabbed his ankle with her other hand and pivoted upwards, unbalancing him. Then she brought her smarting hand around and hit him in the midsection, causing him to liquify on impact. Pieces of white Zetsu went everywhere.

Desperate, she broke out into a sprint for the three Jinchuuriki having their chakra taken and tried to pull them out, but didn't get even ten feet away from them. A black foot made contact with her forehead and kicked her out of the way with ease. "This is why you don't leave survivors," black Zetsu ground out.

"So don't," Obito said, clearly getting annoyed at what was happening. "Just kill them… hm…"

Black Zetsu turned around and opening his mouth to ask what was wrong, and didn't expect to be face-to-face with a woman who was completely clad in blue fire.

She was looking at her hands and turning them over lethargically, like she wasn't used to them. Her facial features were clearly visible, but the fire hugged her, even emulating her clothes. She blinked a few times, heterochromatic green and yellow eyes flicking up to look at him.

Black Zetsu couldn't even blink before a tail made of blue fire whipped around from behind her and latched onto his leg, throwing him away with seemingly casual ease while his body hit the wall hard enough to send a massive crack throughout the entire room.

Realizing the danger, Obito stopped syphoning off chakra from the three and came down, intent on disabling her before she could do any more damage.

She looked up at him with no rage, no sadness, happiness, or any other emotion visible in them. If anything, she looked slightly morose, like a parent disciplining their child even though causing said child consternation might be the last thing they would want to do. Her single tail dug into the ground like and anchor and she jumped up to meet him in combat.

He flowed around her like a river by a rock, but never managed to contact her either. It was like she knew what he was going to do, always. Duck under a kick, sidestep a punch, avert her gaze when he tried to use genjutsu.

Obito grit his teeth. It looked like it was going to be the hard way for her. He produced chakra stakes from his palms and shot them out faster than the eye could track. They entered and exited her, pinging into the walls behind her. His eyes widened. He'd put more force into them, but not enough to completely go through a chakra cloak. Was she weakened more than he thought?

And she looked up at him, completely unfazed at being skewered, and smiled. Not an 'I've got you now' smile. It was genuine. She looked happily at him. And then her facial features disappeared into the flames and her arms and legs too. She became indistinguishable from the fire emanating from her tail…

Obito's eyes widened in disbelief. At the point where she anchored her tail, the two tails was standing with the rest of her group held aloft by chakra arms. He'd never been fighting the real her. He was fighting her tail.

He body flickered his way towards her to try and stab her main body with the chakra rods, but the fire surrounding her flared outwards and bathed the entire room in inferno, not letting him solidify long enough to get her and blinding him in one swoop.

Obito used a water jutsu to wash away the flames, but she was gone, with everyone, when the fires were extinguished.

His hands gripped into fists hard enough that his skin turned bone white.

"Perhaps you should have waited on betraying Madara," black Zetsu said, crawling his badly damaged body along the ground towards him.

Righteous fury glared back. "And I thought you were loyal to him; his own will. Do I have to kill you too?"

"If I were loyal, I wouldn't have let you transplant Nagato's eye into yours. We shared a vision. Nothing more."

Obito let out his breath and released his palm grip. "Enough. I extracted enough chakra from all of them to get to the first stage at least. Once we get there, extracting the rest of them will be simple."

Black Zetsu looked around at the destroyed room. "The best laid plans…"

"Not a word more!" Obito shouted, pointing a finger at the being. He let out a deep breath. "I will need time though. If you share a vision, then find Kisame and get his sword. That'll make things go faster."

Black Zetsu tilted his head in acquiescence. "I'll find him. Try not to fuck things up in the meantime."

As the ground swallowed him up, Obito was left alone, once again.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

" **Aren't you going to get up, kid?"**

Naruto breathed out heavily and shook his head impetuously, jilting the water around his face back and forth. It was already past his ears.

Kurama sighed and put his head back in his palms. **"And here, I thought you were going to 'never give up'."**

"Oh, could you… shut up?" Naruto pushed his head up and got into a sitting position. "Are you only able to make vaguely threatening and just plain mean things come out of your mouth? Is sarcasm your default?"

" **Are empty words yours?"**

Naruto's face scrunched up in frustration. "I didn't give up. I never did. I fought until the end. And here we are."

Kurama glanced around the mindscape. The water was rising. Slowly, but it was. **"This is the end?"**

Throwing up his hands in defeat, Naruto shrugged and flopped back to the watery ground. "Looks that way to me. 'Not giving up' isn't going to do me much good. Your chakra is being taken. We're both going to die here, not that you care."

Kurama's eyes narrowed. **"And what's that supposed to mean, little boy?"**

"Okay, first of all," Naruto said, raising a finger. "Don't call me boy. Not a boy. Second of all, you once tried to kill yourself just to spite me. Given your track record, I'm pretty confident in saying you don't really care about your life."

Kurama's nose curled and he stood up, baring his fangs at the gate. **"Don't presume to speak for me,** _ **child**_ **. And yes, I am going to call you a child, because you are one. What, did you think that just because you put your little prick in a willing hole meant you were a man? A fully grown adult? Don't make me laugh. You've still the mentality of a child."**

"If I've got the mentality of a child, then you have a mentality of a toddler. It's always vitriol and temper tantrums with you."

The corners of Kurama's lips curled. **"Vitriol? That's a big one. Did your wife from sand teach it to you?"**

Naruto shook his head as he stood up; it was no longer comfortable to lay in the rising water. "Hey, that's a good question. I have one for you. Why are you such an asshole all the time?"

" **Because I have reason to be. Ever think about that?"**

"Yeah, well I've got reason to be an asshole too! Ever think about that? But I try my best not be one! I try my best to talk to people and understand them because I know what it's like when people don't do that for me! Being alone is the worst feeling in the world, and this is coming from a guy who had someone's hand in their chest! It sucks! IT REALLY FUCKING SUCKS!" Naruto shouted the last part out, his facing getting red from the heat of the moment. He looked up at the giant red fox. Kurama was staring at him, eyes shifted all over his comparatively smaller frame. The fox was trying to figure out what to say next, Naruto could tell. Probably something snarky and mean.

Naruto took a couple of breaths to calm himself. "Why _are_ you like this anyway, huh? Did someone hurt you? Did someone betray you? You got captured; that's obvious. But who did it? And why?"

Kurama shook his head and turned away. **"You don't care what happened to me. There's not even a morsel of sincerity in your words."**

"You don't get to decide if I'm sincere or not, you big lug of spite," Naruto said, his brow set forward. He pointed at his chest with his thumb. "You know my story already. You've been with me since I was born, after all. But I don't know anything about you. Just that you're big. And you're mean. You want to kill me sometimes and let me live other times. And also someone hurt you; or else you wouldn't be like this."

Kurama's hackles rose. What did that _kid_ know about him? Huh? Nothing! That's what. That child thought sugared words and friendly smiles solved all the problems in the world and they don't. Not even a little bit! He didn't understand anything!

The fox turned around, snout set in a mighty course of invective at the miniscule child… but he wasn't where he'd been standing.

He was gone.

Kurama's eyes narrowed. Had he gained consciousness? That shouldn't be possible. Kurama could still feel the drain on his chakra.

And then he felt something on his wrist. He looked down and saw that the kid had entered his cage and hugged his little body around his appendage. "Just because you've been sad doesn't mean you can't be happy. Just because someone hurt you doesn't mean everyone will," the kid said, burying his face into his fur.

Kurama let a few ragged breaths escape his lips. He could squash the kid and that would be it. Granted, they were both going to die in a little bit, so it didn't really matter. But…

Well, it's not like he _had_ to kill him.

Kurama let one last large breath out and curled up in a ball. **"It all started with the sage..."**

00000000

Naruto opened his eyes. The ceiling was white and the walls were too. The room he was in was sparse. Only a wood dresser that clashed with the room color and a mirror at the opposite wall of the bed made up the furniture. And the only source of light was a window above him, spilling golden rays of sun in the room. He sat up and looked to his side at the shock of platinum blonde hair peeking over the covers.

Yugito shuffled in the sheets and stretched her back out as she sat up, pulling her arms back as she did so with a massive yawn belting from her lips. She wasn't wearing any clothes. "Morning. How'd you sleep?"

Naruto couldn't speak. The last thing he remembered was being pulled into blackness after listening to Kurama's story. "Am I dead?"

She smirked a little bit. She looked almost… playful. "Do you feel dead?"

He looked down at his hands, fingers splayed, and made a fist a few times. "I don't know. I've never been dead, so I don't know how it would feel. Though…" he looked up at her. Usually, her features had a certain edge to them. A rigidity that bespoke of someone who had faced hardship and had hardened as a result. But now, her face looked softer. A lackadaisical smile. Drooping eyes. A jaunty air. "I think I might be in heaven."

And then her brow fell slightly into sadness. There was regret in her eyes. "Sorry, not even close," she said as she shucked the sheets off her body and stood up, going to the dresser and putting her clothes on. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was… talking to Kurama-"

"Kurama? He lets you call him that?"

Naruto blinked. "Yeah, we're… getting to be on better terms. Anyway, I was talking to him when my vision went black, then I woke up here."

"Are you feeling okay?"

Naruto blinked a few more times. "Yeah, a bit…" he paused to yawn widely, "Groggy mostly."

His eyes went wide as saucers. He turned to Yugito, fear at his throat. "Is everyone okay?!" he almost shouted.

One of her eyebrows went up. "Do you really think I would be here, lounging about at noon with no clothes on if anybody were seriously hurt?" She flattened out the last article of clothing and went to the mirror next, already getting started on putting her hair into a braid.

"Well, then, what happened?" he pressed.

"Missions success," she said. "Well, that's the short story anyway. Bee's back. He'll be fine, mostly. There might be permanent damage, but nothing he can't muscle through."

"But…" he put a hand to his face, trying to remember the last thing outside the mindscape during the mission. "We left Temari and the rest of the kage to that Madara guy and then…" he blinked a couple times. "And then I got knocked out immediately."

Yugito nodded as she turned around, flipping her braid behind her back and doing a pose. "That's right. How do I look?"

She was wearing a lavender sundress over baggy shorts that cut off just above the knees. Her braid was also a bit less tight with some strands falling out to frame her face.

He didn't comment on her dress. He looked down and to the side, his expression turning sour. "And then… you saved the day, I'm guessing."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "And I thought I looked pretty good. Anyway, no, it was a group effort."

His jaw clenched. "A group effort that I didn't help in."

"Are you going to start yelling?" she asked, her brows knitting together out of concern.

Naruto's jaw unclenched and he fell backwards onto the bed. "No…" he said in a sigh. It was like there was a heavy weight on his chest, making it hard to breathe. He wanted to cry. He couldn't remember the last time he wanted to cry. Because.

Because…

Because he felt so damn pathetic. Kurama's previous words were starting to sound truer and truer by the second. All he was, was empty words. No matter how much stronger or how much more he trained, he never progressed in any way. It was like he was on a treadmill while everyone was racing ahead. And no matter how hard he ran, he was always in the same place saying the same thing.

But he couldn't cry. Not while Yugito was there. He didn't want to worry her.

The bed shifted as Yugito sat down next to him. Her fingernails brushed against his cheek. "It's okay to cry you know."

His lips were pressed in a thin line to keep them from trembling. "Huh?"

She pushed herself back until she was leaning against the headboard. "You heard me."

He pushed his hands against his eyes. He could feel water on them. "I wasn't…" he started, wiping the fluid away.

"Yes," she interrupted. "You were. Don't try to hide it. I can see it a mile away."

He curled up a little bit and turned away from her, deigning to remain silent.

Yugito had a wistful smile on her face. "Oh, how the tables turn," she said. "Looks like I'm the one comforting you for a change."

When he didn't respond, she sighed and turned her gaze up to the ceiling. "I don't remember how many times I've cried myself to sleep staring up at that ceiling. I've always had to be the strongest, show the greatest example, and never fail. And… I often fell short of those ideals, as you can imagine. And when I did that… I felt so pathetic. I put all my worth into how strong I was and then when my strength wasn't good enough, neither was I. In retrospect, it was quite silly. But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt." She looked down at him, wallowing in despair, and smiled. It felt good to know that even he showed weakness sometimes.

"Do you think I went on to save the day unabated by anything in my path?" she continued on.

"That…" Naruto's voice cracked. "That's how it sounds."

"Well, it's not," she said gravely. "After you got knocked out, I got furious and nearly lost myself to my rage. And then I, myself, got knocked out, perhaps just as badly."

Naruto turned his head slightly so that he could make eye contact with her. "But…"

She nodded and cupped one his cheeks with her hand. "But how did we make it out? Everyone got put under and it's only through the grace of a psychopath's whimsy that we're all still alive. Matatabi, Chomei, Kurama, and Gyuuki all almost got taken away from us. By all rights, we should have failed."

Naruto sat up. His eyes were red. "Then… wait, I'm confused."

She smiled a little bit more. "It makes sense that you are. By all rights, we should have all died in that cave. We didn't though. Did you know that it's possible to hold mastery over the tailed beast's power?"

He blinked at the seeming non-sequitur. "Uh, no."

"Well, it's true. It latches onto hatred and other negative feelings and runs wild from there. So, if you don't have those, then it can't do anything to you. I've never been able to master that. It didn't matter how much I tried or how much counsel Bee gave me. I never succeeded in doing it. To me, it was all futile. And… while I was dying with Matatabi in my mindscape, I had this realization. It was why I loved you. What I realized what attracted me to you in the first place was, yes, because you were a Jinchuuriki and went through all what I did and yadayadayada. But what made me fall in love with you, really fall, was because you were happy. Happy through all the things that happened to you. And I didn't like how I never got to be that way. And then there was this thought. This thought that it was okay for me to be me. All the good and the bad and the in between was all that I was. I can't push away my weaknesses and pretend they don't exist. If I did that, I would be pushing away a part of myself. And after that… my darkness went away. And I could use Matatabi's chakra without fear. So I did. I grabbed everyone and got the fuck out before anyone could catch me. Not the most elegant of ways to get a mission success, I know. But I got there."

Naruto sat up next to her and wiped his dried face. "But I couldn't save you. Or anyone else."

She turned to him and grabbed his hands in hers. Her eyes were intense and unflinching. Her jaw set and her face uncomfortably close. "Don't say that. Don't ever say that. You did save me. Maybe not by rescuing me from a fire-breathing dragon, but you _did_. It doesn't matter where we go from here or what changes between us. You. Saved. Me. And I won't ever forget that."

"Then why do I feel so weak?"

She let go of his hands and stood up from the bed. "If you don't feel strong now, you never will. Strength isn't how hard you can hit someone. I know. For all my life, that's what I thought strength was. It's not even close. Strength is knowing what to say to someone who's lost everything. Strength is comforting someone on the precipice of something dangerous. Strength is never giving up. To me, you're the strongest person I know. So get up. We need to get to the hospital."

Naruto looked at her, a small smile coming to his face. "You're pretty strong too, you know that?"

She shrugged with a cocky grin. "I do, but please tell me more. The thing I need most right now is a bigger head."

He got up, realizing he was naked himself, and covered his extremities with the sheet. "Where are my clothes?" he asked. "And why was I naked?"

"I'm not going to sleep next to someone covered in dirt and grime. So I cleaned you up before getting you to bed."

He blinked. "Okay, so where did you put my clothes… and are you saying that you gave me a sponge bath?"

She threw him a small scroll from a pocket in her shorts. "There are your clothes. And yes, I did. I have to say, the way Temari talked about it gave the impression it was two feet long and as wide as a thigh. That impression was very off."

Naruto pressed his lips together. "I'm a grower," he said, face getting flushed.

"I hope you are," she said, turning around so he could get dressed.

"It doesn't really matter if you see me changing," he muttered as he unsealed and climbed back into his clothes.

"It's for your sake; not mine."

He frowned. He didn't like not being in charge of the situation.

"You can turn around now," he said.

When she did turn around, he made sure to drink up her entire form with his eyes. "You actually do really nice, by the way," he said.

She smiled again, but this time it was genuine. "Thanks. Now come on, we don't have all day."

Yugito walked to the door, but Naruto was quick to catch up and grab her hand, halting her. "Or… we could fulfil our little wager we made yesterday."

Her brow scrunched up. "You were out cold yesterday."

He shrugged. "Two days ago then? Maybe three? At night… before we fell asleep next to each other…"

Her eyes narrowed, then widened. Her face flushed a little bit and she looked away. "We can do that later. Besides, I should talk to Temari and Fu fi-"

She was interrupted by Naruto's hand cupping her cheek and turning her head so that it was facing his. "They'll be fine with it," he said in a low voice. "Two to three is a lot easier than one to two. And besides, I love you. And you love me."

She tried to look to the side, but his other hand looped around her waist and pulled her closer. She didn't pull back. She looked as deeply into his eyes as she could, then she closed them and pushed her head forward, lips parted, looking for something good.

And he was all too happy to oblige.

00000000

"You look like pressed shit."

"I am so glad to see that you haven't expanded your lexicon in the slightest since we last saw each other."

Kurotsuchi grinned at Mei as she cut up fruit to be eaten. "So tell me, how badly did you all get your asses beat?"

Mei let out a long breath of air, breaking eye contact with the cocky girl. "It was bad, I'll admit." Her voice was scratchy and light, like she had something her throat that she couldn't cough out. The worst show of outward damage on her body was a black eye swollen shut and a general air of weakness. Madara hadn't done too much damage past breaking a few bones. The worst thing he broke was everyone's pride and moral.

"And it was the five of you? Strongest people in the elemental nations?"

Mei nodded slowly. "We gave him a run for his money, granted, but it wasn't even a contest in the end."

"Well… shit," Kurotsuchi muttered. She'd started off trying to grill the older woman, but now she felt unsettled. If she was telling the truth, then they were in for a wild ride. A dangerous wild ride.

God, what had her grandfather gotten her into?

"You feeling better?" Mei asked.

Kurotsuchi's brows furrowed slightly. She was almost expecting a biting comeback or remark to come with it. Their conversations usually comprised of her grilling Mei about her shortcomings and Mei in return lecturing her about her caustic attitude and personality. A show of genuine concern was somewhat new.

She set down the peeled apple and put her hands on her knees. "I'm… fine. 100%. Ready and fit to… do whatever needs to be done next."

Mei pushed herself up a little bit so she was sitting. "Good. Because we're going to need all the help we can get if we want to win this."

Kurotsuchi looked behind her, to the ceiling, to the walls or floor. It was hard to maintain eye contact with the woman. "Guess it feels good that the peace treaty is starting to justify itself. Guess we're just lucky that we fell into the thing that's going to save us."

"Hopefully save us," Mei corrected her.

"Hopefully."

There was a silence between them. She didn't know how it got so somber, but it did.

"How do you feel about Naruto?" Mei asked suddenly.

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened at the suddenness of her question. She wanted to evade it, but she had a feeling that the woman wasn't going to relent in in her line of thought. "I… I like him. I really do. I'm not sure if it's love or something else. But I like being with him."

Mei smiled a little bit. "That's a good feeling. Hold on to it. You might miss it when it's gone."

The finality of that statement shook Kurotsuchi a little bit in an unexpected way. There was no uncertainty about it. Eventually her feelings for him were going to change for either the better or the worse. The in-between phase she was in was untenable at best and she knew it somewhere deep down, but had never truly realized it. "Yeah…" she said slowly. "I might."

Kurotsuchi shook her head and took a deep breath. She didn't like the air that the room was getting. "Anyway, how do _you_ feel about him?"

Mei's smile turned impish. "He's good… for his age. Good attitude. Good personality. Good body. Seems to have matured past what a normal 17 year old should be, which is regrettable in some ways and desirable in others… but in the end, he's too young for me. I'll check back in when he's 20."

Kurotsuchi's lips curled upwards. "Oh? Because I'm pretty sure Yugito said something pretty similar at some point…"

Mei shrugged. "The future's uncertain. If there's anything these past months have told me, it's that. But the chances of that happening are slim."

Before Kurotsuchi could speak again, the door opened and a nurse walked in, head turned away addressing someone else. "She's right in here," the woman said, an arm pointing in to the room.

Naruto and Yugito entered slowly at first, like they were afraid of waking her up, and their faces summarily lit up at seeing Mei and Kurotsuchi. "Mei," Naruto spoke her name like he was sighing from relief and exclaiming from excitement at the same time.

Her face lifted in brevity. "Still alive, somehow."

He walked over to her quickly and came to a sudden stop by her bed, face at war with itself.

He wanted to give her a hug, but he didn't know if it was going to hurt her.

Mei couldn't help but chuckle in mirth. "Come here you little guy," Mei said, outstretching her arms.

Naruto dove down and hugged her to his chest, doing his best not to make her uncomfortable. Yugito stood next to Kurotsuchi with one hand on her hip, a half smile on her lips as she looked at them. "You feeling better?" she asked.

Kurotsuchi was starting to feel a sense of deja vu. "I am," she said measuredly. "What about you? I heard some pretty crazy things about you. And… you also feel a bit…"

"Different?" Yugito proffered.

Kurotsuchi nodded lightly.

Yugito took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let the breath out slowly. "I am different. At least a little bit, I'd hope."

Mei laughed in a lecherous tone, marking the end of hers and Naruto's hug. "Ho ho ho, different eh? Moving that fast, are you?"

Yugito crossed her arms over her chest, one eyebrow cocked. "And if we were?"

"Which we're not," Naruto said definitively.

"Killjoy/Killjoy," Mei and Yugito said at once. There was a beat while everyone processed the sheer coincidence of that moment before the three women broke into laughter at Naruto's expense.

Naruto sighed a little bit. Maybe having a harem wasn't going to be all it was cracked up to be.

00000000

Sakura wiped her brow and sat down in a cheap plastic chair. She'd been standing on a linoleum floor for the past four hours hunched over Jiraiya's shoulder doing her best to sew his arm back on. As it would happen, his was the worst injury of everyone's, which was good considering she had been expecting some fatalities with them. What wasn't good was that his arm wasn't taking a hold again.

It took six hours for Yugito to run from the Akatsuki hide-out to the village hidden in clouds and had grabbed his arm as an afterthought on the way out. How he even survived the trip, Sakura didn't know. What she did know was that as soon as she was oriented enough, she had been doing catch-up work on healing everyone's injuries considering hidden cloud's… lack of significant medical chakra techniques… to put it lightly.

In truth, she was the best medic-nin in the village by a country mile. And that made her indispensable.

And that made attaching Jiraiya's arm very difficult. Chakra techniques were all well and good, but they only sped up and helped the body to heal itself. And his body didn't want its arm back. It was looking to be a lost cause. She didn't know much about Jiraiya, but considering the way he fought the man with copious piercings, she could tell he relied extensively on ninjutsu. There was the possibility of using one-handed sealing, but that didn't shake the fact that without that arm, hidden leaf's military capabilities had taken a huge loss.

And they needed all the military capabilities they had at the moment.

So in thought she was, she didn't notice when Fu sat opposite her. "You don't look too good," the girl said.

Sakura snapped back into attention, blinking her heavy, bagged eyes. "Yeah, well… yeah."

Fu laughed a little bit, though it had a twinge of concern tinting it. Like she had just watched a toddler fall over. "Maybe you should go take a rest?"

"You…" Sakura blinked a little bit and shook her head. "No, nevermind. Anyway, I'm a medic-nin. Long hours aren't something new to me."

"Long hours after being tossed through the grinder is, I'm guessing."

Sakura rubbed her eyes. "What about you? You almost got your tailed beast ripped out of you. You should be knocking on death's door, like Bee was."

She shrugged. "I've got a good constitution."

"That's one word for it," Sakura murmured. "And, to answer your question: No, I cannot. I'm the most accomplished medic-nin here. I rest, people die."

Fu clicked her tongue. "Sounds like a shit life."

Sakura looked away. "It isn't for everyone. But then again, you're a Jinchuuriki. Yours wasn't all sugar and roses."

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "It wasn't the best. But if it happened any other way, I wouldn't be here where I am."

Sakura's eyebrows rose. "And that's a good thing?"

Fu looked her in the eye. Any pretense of a lackadaisical attitude was gone. Her face was genuine. And it was genuinely happy. "Of course it is."

"Because of Naruto?"

Fu tilted her head a little bit to the side. "Yeah… that's part of it. But now I have so many friends. I'm not alone with Chomei anymore. That's not to say Chomei isn't good company, but it's hard to have a birthday party with two people. Three if Shibuki comes."

Sakura's jaw set in a line and she looked down. A lonely birthday party sounded like the most crushing thing to her. And both Naruto and Sasuke have had their fair share of them.

"That's it!"

Sakura looked back up to Fu. She'd drowsed off for a couple of seconds. "Huh?"

"A party! That's what we need."

Sakura slowly blinked. "Huh?"

Fu stood up with her arms crossed over her chest belting out a laugh of defiance. "No more lonely birthdays! And for all the birthdays up 'til this point, we have to make up for lost time. We're throwing a party to end all parties! And everyone's invited."

"You sure that won't be awkward?" Sakura asked.

Fu looked down, not breaking her stance. "How so?"

"You know… You and Temari and Naruto… and with how Kurotsuchi and Yugito feel about him…"

Fu tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"

Oh, she didn't know. And it was so obvious. Well, it wasn't as if she could pick up on social ques all too well considering her background.

Sakura thought for a moment about withholding the information so she could work it out with the parties involved. That thought was stricken down as soon as she realized who she was dealing with and just how unrelenting a person she could be.

"They like him," Sakura blurted out plainly. "In a romantic way."

"Oh," Fu said, closing her eyes and smiling in an eerily similar way to how Naruto did it. "I thought you were going to say something like 'they hate him' or something. Wouldn't be the weirdest thing if that were the case. They all got off on pretty bad footing with each other, after all."

Sakura's eyebrows rose. "You'd be okay with that?"

Fu looked to the side awkwardly. "I mean… I _am_ the second addition. Not much room to complain from where I am."

"Of course there is," Sakura said. "If you're not okay with it, then that should factor in."

"I-I know," Fu said quickly. "I _am_ okay with it. I like those two. They're good people. Maybe if it were someone random, someone I didn't know... But I'm okay with them. I'm just saying it'd be a bit hypocritical if I objected to that."

"And I'm just saying that the fact that your relationship is hierarchal isn't healthy."

Fu's eyebrows drooped a little bit. That line had annoyed her a bit. "It's not hierarchal. We're equal. All of us. But all of our situations are a little bit different. If I'm upset with him, I'm going to bring it up to him. I'm blunt like that. Kinda like how I'm going to say that I don't appreciate you trying to poke holes in our relationship."

"I'm not poking holes in anything," Sakura said, showing her palms. "But if there _are_ holes, I'm not going to pretend they aren't there."

The pink-haired girl stood up and straightened her clothes out. She stunk. She needed new clothes. She needed a good meal and some sleep. And she needed to find a way to coax Jiraiya's arm back into place.

"Listen," she said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're in a harem now. You were before, but that was political. Now, you are romantically involved with someone who has another lover of whom you have some relation with. Normal rules don't apply, so I can't give you much advice. Hell, I don't even have a well of personal experience to draw upon, so that's out too. What I _can_ say is that there's a reason those types of situations usually dissolve; there has to be, otherwise people would do it a lot more often. Hopefully, you don't find out what the reason is."

Sakura turned to leave the room, but not before turning around, putting on as kind a face as she could muster given her exhaustion. "I want you to be happy," she said. "You and Naruto and Temari. I don't want you to split apart because, right now, you all seem content with your situations. But seeming content and being content are two radically different things. Don't lie to yourself. Don't lie to others. Hopefully it'll all work out. I need to go put an arm back in place."

And then she left, leaving the room empty with Fu biting her cheek and her arms crossed over her chest.

00000000

The door cracked open, stopping the conversation between Temari and her nurse. Naruto's head poked in the opening followed closely by Yugito's atop his. "Hey," he said. "Didn't want to wake you…"

Temari cracked a half-smile. God, she loved him. She looked up to the nurse. "Is that it?"

The woman nodded. "Rest for a week or two and you'll be back up in no time."

Naruto and Yugito opened the door fully to let the woman out and stepped in after her. "Doing okay?" Yugito asked.

"Thanks to you," she said sincerely, propping herself out of the bed. Naruto rushed to help her up, which she took graciously, using his shoulder to lean on. "All I heard was that you saved all of us, so I thought you'd be in the worst state. I'm glad you're not."

Yugito grinned a little bit, obviously very pleased with herself. "I'm just glad no one's dead."

"Yeah, that's what's hard to believe. All of us got thrashed by that monster and we all made it out okay."

"Relatively, but yes."

Temari gradually let go of Naruto and walked around on her own. She seemed wobbly and he was always there in case she fell over, but she never did. Temari eyed Yugito up and down, noting her change of garb and markedly different attitude. "Are you… alright?"

Yugito bit the side of her cheek and looked to the side a little bit. "Uhm… Naruto… can we have the room?"

His brow knit in concern for a moment or two before her intent dawned on him. Temari was witness to their interaction and reacted by saying "Oh," and nodding a little bit. "I think I've got an idea what's happening."

Temari stared at Yugito's face, trying to discern the woman's intention.

She was nice, but in the deep-down kind of way. Earnest and hardworking with seeming no ill-intent. Somewhat dry and cold, but not unjust in her actions. A stand-up and good person.

And she was playing with her hair, refusing to meet eyes with her. Temari smiled a bit. "So you finally told him, huh?"

Yugito's eyes widened in shock. "What- you knew?"

"Of course I knew. You were very obvious."

Yugito looked taken-aback. "How so?"

"You stared at him a lot. Hung on his every word. Looked at his ass every now and then."

Yugito's cheeks flared up in indignation and embarrassment while Naruto was doing his best to hold in laughter. Maybe a harem _was_ all it was cracked up to be.

"We'll all sit down and talk with Fu," Temari said. "I'm tentatively okay, but I want to get to know you better before I share a bed with you, which I think is reasonable. Everyone okay with that?"

The two nodded, Yugito adding under her breath, "You really like take-charge women, don't you?"

"I am a kage for a reason," Temari said dryly.

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "And my tastes range widely."

"As evidenced," Yugito said, smiling a bit.

Temari smiled too. "I think I like this new Yugito."

Yugito smiled back, just as brightly. "I do too."

00000000

It was the last door Naruto had to open. And he had to open it alone. His jaw was set and his gaze turned downwards. Taking a deep breath, he plastered a smile on his face and opened the door. "Heya, you old pervert. Up yet?"

The man sitting in the hospital bed was still towering despite what most would be enfeebled by. There were dark bags under his eyes and his face looked gaunt, but he still had the energy to smile back at his apprentice. "Heya kid, I'm up and raring to go."

Naruto's heart sunk a little bit when he saw Jiraiya's lack of a right arm. Its inexistence struck him. He didn't look whole without it. Which would normally go without saying, but it made him look eerie. And Naruto couldn't help but feel at least in part responsible for it.

The sun was setting and the window out to the village got a perfect view of it just starting to dip below the clouds. "Is everyone alright?" Jiraiya asked. He didn't sound worried, which made Naruto think he already knew the answer to the question.

"You got the worst of it," Naruto said. "And you're still smiling through it, somehow."

He shrugged. "Can't let the youngsters show me up. I've got a reputation to uphold."

In the end, Sakura wasn't able to reattach his limb no matter how hard she tried. She kept at it until she nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Naruto's smile began to vanish. "Are you okay?" he asked. He couldn't act like there wasn't anything wrong anymore.

Jiraiya's face turned slightly somber as he looked at the void where his right arm used to be. "I'm old, kid. Not as old as the Third when he kicked the bucket, but I'm old enough that an early retirement would suit me well." He looked back up to Naruto, his face deadly serious. "There is one more thing I need to teach you as your master. After that, you're on your own."

Naruto waited a beat or two for him to continue. When he didn't, Naruto leaned in a little bit. "And that thing is…?"

Jiraiya leaned back, a lecherous grin on his face. "I'll tell you, but first you gotta tell me how your first threesome went."

Naruto's face went into his hand. "I would throw something at you if you weren't in a hospital bed right now."

"I see you aren't denying you've had one. How was it? Great right? Honestly, threesomes don't work well with me. Too many things to focus on. That, or you're just there while they're having fun. No, it's gotta be mano a mano for me."

"I should have expected this," Naruto murmured.

"I appreciate a woman with giant knockers, but I have had quite a few sessions with women with more… lithe frames. They're always fun. Not much to grab on to, if you get my dri-" Jiraiya's mouth clacked shut when he got domed in the head with a scroll, courtesy of one Naruto Uzumaki.

"You get one," the younger lad said.

Jiraiya couldn't help but to chuckle like an idiot. "What did I do wrong this time? We're both men now. We should be able to talk about this candidly."

Naruto's eyes went half-lidded. "Just because I've had sex doesn't mean I'm a man."

Jiraiya shut his mouth for a second or two to think about what to say next. "Yeah, well… you realizing that put's you somewhere along the road."

Naruto sat down in a chair next to the bed with a prolonged sigh. He was tired. Physically and emotionally. When was he ever not emotionally tired?

"Someone sounds like they need a break," Jiraiya remarked casually.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya, unable to believe what he was hearing. "We almost all died, if you haven't noticed. You lost an arm. We can't 'break'."

The man tilted his head. "That's what I'm doing. I've earned a day or two. So have you. You're going to burn yourself out. Spend some time alone. Spend some time with your two lovelies. And come back when you're all done."

Naruto blinked. "Like, right now?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Jiraiya sighed, closing his eyes. "Besides, I need rest. Now beat it kid. We can talk about what I'm going to teach you later."

Naruto was about to follow up with more lines of questioning, but Jiraiya's sudden, deep snoring stopped him. It wasn't faked snoring either, he could tell. The old man was out like a light. He shook his head at the familial old man. "Yeah, get some sleep you old fart."

He stood up and made to leave the room, but not without one more parting glance.

00000000

The sun had set and he could go back to Yugito's apartment, a temporary domicile which she so graciously extended to him for the night. Afterwards, they would be staying at a home allocated to them by the kage. But he wasn't making his way to her.

Not yet.

The village hidden in clouds didn't exactly have the most thriving of night life's, but there was a ramen stand with its lights still on a distance away from the hospital that he felt drawn to.

He flipped through the small curtains and sat down, immediately taken back to when he was a kid, slurping down ramen on a pitch black night just so he wouldn't have to eat alone again. The man behind the counter was towering and had a pleasant face. There was only one other person at the stand, preoccupied with their own dish.

"What'll it be?" he asked in a deep baritone.

Naruto took a few seconds to answer. "Does… Kumo have any specialties?"

It was at this time that the man noticed his forehead protector and the leaf engraved in it. His face lit up and he grabbed the counter, leaning in. "You're a Konoha nin, right? Are you with the party that saved Bee?"

Naruto felt a smile coming up on his face. "Yeah, that was us. Group effort though. All the nations came together for that one."

The man stood back, obviously pleased with this information. "Anything you want, on the house. It's the least I could do for a person who helped save the hero of Kumo."

The man turned around and got to preparing the dish. "You're from Konoha, so that means lot's of ground animals right? Beef, chicken, pork? Well, you haven't had ramen until you-" the man paused to grunt as he hefted up an egg that looked like it was bigger than a baby "Have had fried pigraptor egg."

"Pigraptor?"

The man chuckled, pleased at being able to show off his village's specialties. "If you think the egg's big, the bird'll have you shitting your pants. Well, maybe not your pants. You kicked the ass of whoever took Bee, after all."

Naruto's face fell a little bit. "Yeah, well… group effort."

The man continued to talk on and on about the world in a way Naruto hadn't felt. Trade was booming and so was business. People were getting along better at the borders. Fights still broke out every now and then, but they were punished on both sides severely. It was becoming safer.

"You hear about the minor village conference in the land of iron?" the man asked.

Naruto's eyebrows scrunched. "I feel like I've heard of that before."

"The way I hear it, it's going to be a big shit storm."

"How so?"

"Everyone wants a piece of the pie. And if they can't have that, they want a piece of the person who took a piece of the pie. Too many egos. Too many blood feuds."

The bowl was set in front of Naruto. Everything in it was obscured by a giant fried egg. The man looked on proudly. "There were a lot of egos with the big villages, you know," Naruto said, breaking apart his chopsticks.

The man considered it. "Yeah, but that's different. Like… I don't know. It's not the same."

"How astute," the person next to Naruto said. They were obscured by a cloak, but the voice was obviously feminine. And also not a way of speaking he had ever heard before.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said, nodding with his words. "I get it, geopolitical genius, I am not. Mark my words, it's going to be bad."

"Duly marked," the woman said.

Naruto looked at the cloaked individual. "Kurotsuchi?" he asked.

"Godfuckit," she said, wrenching her hood off her head. "Knew I shouldn't've said anything."

Naruto pushed his chopsticks into the fried egg, spilling egg yolk into the noodles below. "Did you want alone time or something?"

She shook her head, twirling the scant remainder of her meal with her chopsticks. "No, I thought you did."

"Mm?" he hummed, biting into his food.

"You've got a lot on your shoulders. Or at least, you seem to put a lot on there. You're stressed out and sometimes people need alone time."

"Sho why were you here?" he asked between bites.

"Coincidence. I saw a ramen stand. Was a little bit reminded of how we acted back in hidden leaf. Little things."

"Why'd you stay?"

She looked at him, concern in her eyes. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

He swallowed his noodles and wiped his mouth, unsure of how to respond to that. A show of genuine concern was rare for the girl with raven hair. She got up from her seat, walked over, and enveloped him in a hug from the back. "I'm terrible with advice. So just… make it out, okay?"

She left the stand, leaving Naruto alone with his ramen and the company of a stranger.

00000000

When he opened the door to Yugito's apartment and saw her blonde hair peeking over the covers, he smiled, feeling pricks of water at the edges of his eyes.

It was a good feeling.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Most villages made announcements of major importance from the kage tower, as the tower was usually the most central point and or the highest point in the village.

Not so for the village hidden in clouds. Made in the mountaintops clearing low altitude clouds, there weren't many flat spaces for many people to gather at once. And so, they made one for just such an occasion. Structured like a very large amphitheater, there were great rows of seats large enough for the entire populace to view said announcement, performance, or other such event of importance.

It was Naruto's turn to be up there. Him along with his political harem, Ai, and Bee, of whom he had just met an hour prior. He was a good man. Yugito had compared them together, which Naruto couldn't see in the slightest, yet drew sounds of confirmation from the rest of his peers.

Ai was giving a speech in front of all of them. The entire populace knew of the treaty at that point, but they were still doing rounds. Must have been for the sake of equitable treatment, or something like that. He wasn't even 100% on what equity meant or how it differed from equality. Temari had been inadvertently lecturing him about how economics and social systems worked since he arrived at the house allotted to them from Yugito's apartment. It was interesting to be sure, but he didn't think he would ever have a full grasp of its entirety.

The man was still speaking and he couldn't really concentrate on it. He was looking at the populace's faces. There wasn't a glimmer of a glower anywhere. They were all elated and hopeful. They had faith that the treaty would work. And why wouldn't they? An entire troupe of shinobi from various nations had banded together and risked everything for the sole purpose of saving one of their most respected protectors.

Naruto snapped out of it when Ai took a step back and Yugito took a step forward. She stood in front of everyone, garbed in her normal shinobi attire. Her back was rigid and her face as hard as stone.

"You know me as Yugito Nii of the hidden cloud," she said loudly, her voice carrying across the entire range. The audiences' faces changed slightly. She was respected like Bee, but there was a bit of worry present on their faces. She obviously didn't inspire the hearts like he could. And considering the way she acted until very recently, Naruto would have guessed they might even have had an amount of fear when they looked at her.

"I'll try to keep my time speaking brief. You all are very busy and we're all eating away at your time. I just feel like I had to speak about something important to me as it pertains to this treaty."

She paused. Her voice had been getting wobbly towards the end of her sentence. She looked down, took a deep breath, and looked back up to address the crowd. "Before being selected as a member of a political marriage, I didn't like the village hidden in leaves very much."

There was a murmur of slight laughter across the crowd, though many of them didn't know how to interpret her words. "And… when I found out I was going to be a member of a political marriage, I liked them even less." Her words had a lightness to them and her small, sheepish grin told the crowd that it was okay to laugh a little bit.

"I liked it so little that… perhaps when our tempers were a little bit higher than they should have been, me and… Mr. Uzumaki had a sparring session, which was little more than a ploy to beat the shit out of the other person. And… it, uhh… went a little bit too far. I almost killed him."

The crowd went silent.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be it. Treaty over. Nice try. Better luck next time. But it wasn't, or else I wouldn't be standing in front of you all today, smiling instead of grimacing in regret. The reason it wasn't was because he covered for me, said it was an accident or something- I don't quite remember. He… forgave me. He laid some blame on me, laid some blame on himself, then I helped carry him back to the house we were staying at when he couldn't do it myself. And I was walking there, with him on my back considering him. Thinking of how we were different and how we might be similar."

They didn't know how to react, Naruto could tell. There were hushed side-conversations and uncomfortable shifting in seats.

"Over the course of our coming here, much has happened, some of which you have heard about. I was… initially distrustful of everyone behind me, as I'm sure any of you would be. But as I've come to know them, speak to them, fight with and for them, I see that they are good people; people who I would be honored to call my friends… as well… as a lover."

There were those in the crowd that gasped and Naruto's eyes shot wide open. He looked to his sides and saw that he wasn't the only one shocked by her announcement. "I'm in love with him," she continued, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks. "In fact, I think I love all of them. They're the people most precious to me. And I would do anything for their sake. And I'm comfortable knowing they would do the same for me."

She paused again and looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. A flair of blue fire ignited at her feet and traveled up her body, encompassing everything, leaving a faint outline of her body. It contorted and compressed until it was like a bodysuit over her own. She smiled and raised a fist into the air. "Apart we have found strength, but together is how we know how to use it. This is a moment that will go down in history. The world will know peace. True peace."

Her fire flickered out and she returned to her position at the line-up.

For a scant few seconds, nothing happened.

Then one person started clapping. Followed by another. Another. Then a cavalcade of clapping followed. Some even rose up and started cheering.

Even despite himself, Naruto couldn't help but smile.

00000000

"What is up with you and shopping for clothes?" Naruto asked, only to get smacked in the face by a flying T-shirt.

"I'm not shopping for clothes," Kurotsuchi replied. " _We're_ shopping for clothes. Got it? And we're shopping for clothes for you, so be grateful."

"I don't need clothes."

Kurotsuchi looked at him as if he said something about not needing hydration, food, or another necessity. "The only pair of clothes you have left is the one you have on your back."

"They're shipping the clothes from rock over here."

"Which will take a couple of days," Kurotsuchi said with a bit of a mumble as she looked over at a pattern on a shirt. She snapped back to him, showing the front of the article while saying "I don't even know how you can operate on one pair of clothes. Anyway, how do you like it?"

It was a long-sleeved black shirt with a skull-like emblem going from top-to-bottom. Naruto half-frowned. "It's not really my style."

One of her eyebrows titled up in amusement. "Not for you. For me."

"And I thought we were shopping for me," Naruto said, putting his hands on his hips, eyebrow cocked.

"We _were_ , but I've got a blank check for getting you garbed and I'm going to make good use of it. So back to the question: how do you like it?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "First of all, that's a man's shirt."

"I'll get a small."

"It's a bit gothic."

She flipped a hand through her hair. "I'll get a highlight to match with it then. I've never tried the goth look."

"A hair highlight? What color are you thinking for it, pink?"

Kurotsuchi walked over to a full-length mirror, splaying the shirt over her torso. "Why pink?" she asked, half-paying attention.

"Your eyes, obviously," Naruto said, joining her, looking at their reflections. She was smiling a little bit while his face looked neutral.

They made eye contact through the mirror. She was looking at him pityingly. Turning around to face him, Kurotsuchi tossed the shirt aside and said, "Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "I'm fine. I just… don't want to go clothes shopping right now."

"Well, what _do_ you want to do?"

"I wanna… train. I was tossed around by the mask guy and didn't help anyone in the end. I don't want to feel that weak ever again and I want to protect my precious people."

It was her turn to cock an eyebrow. "You don't sound too passionate regarding that, you know."

He didn't have an answer for her, choosing instead to bite the side of his lip and look to the side, doing his best to think up a suitable response.

She didn't give him the time, grabbing his elbow so that he would look at her and saying, "You're sad, aren't you?"

Damn. Was he that obvious? And he'd been trying to make sure she wouldn't notice. He bit his lip and nodded his head up and down. "I don't… I don't know why I'm sad. I should be… I don't know, I should be bouncing around the walls, saying stupid shit, trying on clothes, working my ass off… but I don't want to do any of that. And what's worse is that I don't know what I _do_ want to do. I just know what I don't. And I know I sound like a… a petulant child, but-"

"You don't," Kurotsuchi said firmly. "It's fine. I understand what you're going through."

Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion. "How do you know? I don't even know."

She sheepishly looked to the side. "Well, I don't know for sure. I'm not an expert on these things. But it sounds like you're depressed."

He crossed his arms. "Depressed? I'm not depressed."

She raised her hand up and pulled down one digit for every point she made. "General feeling of sadness, lack of motivation, feeling guilty about being sad when you know you should be happy. Tics all the boxes."

He looked to the side at a rack of pants. How could he be depressed? Sure, he got sad at times, especially when he was a kid, but now he was surrounded by people who loved him and who he loved back. He was in love with three women and they accepted that and reciprocated it. He shouldn't be depressed.

Noticing he didn't respond right away, Kurotsuchi closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him, putting her head against his chest. "It's… a hard thing to wrap your head around. I know that. I know that better than a lot of people. And I also know that hollow words of encouragement don't really help. And I also know that when people act like they know you better than you know you, it gets you frustrated. I know all these things."

Naruto's lips pressed into a thin line. He looked at their reflection again. His face was not the face of a happy person. His jaw locked and he leaned forward until his head was on top of hers. "I don't like feeling this way. How do I… How do I get better?"

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't know," she said. "It's probably different for everybody. I got depressed when I realized nobody was trying to get to know me for me. All my peers put me on this pedestal and I didn't want that. It lasted for… a while. And I got out of it when I stopped caring what they thought of me. But I don't think that'll work in your position."

Kurotsuchi disengaged and looked him in the eyes. "It hasn't really been a long time since we met, but we've got history, you and I. Some bad, some good. But I'm not going to abandon you. I care about you, you know that. And no matter what you need to help yourself out of it, I'll do my best to give it to you."

He smiled a little bit. Hearing her words made his heart flicker around a little bit. Despite her brazen attitude to a lot of things it was nice to affirm every now and then that she was a nice person. "Kurotsuchi, I-"

A feeling of utmost dread and horrific, bone-chilling disgust swept through the store like a flood. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing to look up, eyes wide. Naruto knew that feeling all too well and Kurotsuchi was feeling a major sense of de ja vu.

It was the ghastly feeling of tailed beast chakra swamping over everything. The fellow shoppers started murmuring amongst themselves.

"I don't know-"

"Is that Bee?"

"Couldn't be."

"Yugito looked like she was in control."

"It feels different."

"Are we safe?"

Naruto and Kurotsuchi met eyes. Wild, alert, scared eyes. If everyone was in control of their tailed beasts then that only left one logical conclusion.

They were being attacked.

00000000

A few minutes ago.

Despite being the oldest at the table, Yugito felt like she was wilting under the unflinching gaze of the two girls. They were sitting around a wrought iron table outside a café. There were cups of tea in front of each of them that sat cooling. Past pleasantries, little of substance had been said as of yet. They had gotten a couple of odd stares since coming there, but nobody had approached them.

"I guess I should start," Temari said, prompting Fu to reach forward and take a sip of her tea, only to summarily recoil from it.

"Is this what tea tastes like?" she asked, interrupting Temari's train of thought.

Temari blinked and looked at her. How had she already been derailed? "That… strand of tea, I suppose."

"It tastes like dirt."

"They all taste like dirt," Yugito remarked, taking a sip of her own tea and frowning at it.

Temari balked at that statement. "No they don't. Personal tastes aside, there are some strands that are quite relaxing."

Yugito shook her head. "Nope. Dirt."

Temari's eyes went half-lidded. "You aren't making a good case for yourself."

"I think she's making a wonderful case," Fu said, casting her gaze to the side.

Temari pinched the bridge of her nose and leaned on the table. "This is going to be a long marriage," she groused.

"Hopefully a long, happy one," Yugito said in consolation.

Temari sat back, rubbing some life back into her face as she did. "What's he to you?"

Yugito's eyebrows scrunched. "How do you mean?"

"Naruto."

"I guessed that. It's the line of questioning I'm uncertain of."

Temari took a sip from her tea. "Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me. What's he to you?"

Yugito tapped her finger on her thigh. "Uhrm… he's a good friend and hopefully a good lover."

That caught Temari's interest, if nothing else. "So you're open to the idea that we'll refuse?"

"I mean…" Yugito looked at the ground. "I would hope you wouldn't. But I don't want to sour any existing relationships by my coming into this little…"

"Harem," Temari said resolutely.

Yugito stalled. "I was hoping there would be a more euphemistic way of stating that."

"But there isn't. We're a harem. I know you love him; that's obvious enough, but have you given really any thought about what that means? What being part of a harem means?"

Yugito gulped, not tearing her gaze from Temari's own. "I… not… really, no I haven't. I'm okay with it, if that's what you're asking. I, er, like you both. I'm not the jealous type, or at least I don't think I am. We can work any of the logistical problems regarding… erm, times of when we would meet for… nightly activities." The woman was doing her damnedest not to be blunt with her words.

"Would you like to have sex with us?" Temari asked, face set in her normal stoic demeanor. It was like she was asking for clarification on a serious question.

Yugito's eyes widened from shock and her face flushed a deep red. "That's… er… like, right now?"

"Near future."

"I- I- I mean… I haven't thought about… that. I haven't ever really seen women in that light. I'm… open for trying it though. I probably won't be very good at it," Yugito laughed nervously, hoping to lighten Temari's mood.

Not even a twitch of the lip. If there was ever a time to feel social anxiety for the cat woman, it would be now.

"You're being a bit hard on her, don't you think?" Fu asked. "All I had to do was ask. And I'm pretty sure I was the one who suggested we all get it on together."

"I just want to make sure all the communication that needs to happen, happens," Temari said, taking another sip from her tea.

Fu waited a beat for her to continue. "Is that it then?" she asked when Temari didn't continue.

Temari shrugged. "I didn't write a list or anything. Did you want to bring anything up?"

Fu narrowed her eyes and stared at her hands. "How old are you again?"

"I… er, I turned 29 this year."

Fu's eyebrows shot up. "29? You look a lot younger than that."

Yugito blinked and took a gulp of her drink. "I'll take that as a compliment?"

"It was more of an observation than anything else," Fu said.

"Actually," Yugito said suddenly. She shifted in her seat a little bit and looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention to them. After that, she leaned in and, with mischievous eyes, asked "Should expect anything?"

Temari looked at her quizzically and was about to ask for clarification when Fu grabbed the table and leaned in explosively "He's gigantic."

"Oh, god," Temari said putting her face in her hand, realizing what the question was about. "He's not that big."

Fu looked at her, aghast. "What are you talking about? It was… it was… whoo," Fu leaned back, covering her eyes. "Can't even describe it. Wouldn't do it justice. Just prepare yourself for a whalloping."

Yugito's eyebrows went up. "Really?"

"If my healing factor weren't through the roof, I wouldn't have been able to walk in the morning."

"You're exaggerating," Temari remarked, going unheard by the two of them.

Yugito leaned in closer. "Is he long? Thick?"

"Why choose?" Fu answered with a question.

"Notice the difference of the frames between the two of you," Temari said. "One of you is going to be affected by it at a greater amount than the other."

"Just talking about it is making me drool," Fu said under her breath.

"From the… mouth?" Yugito asked, noticing the girl's lack of drool.

"From the lower mouth," Fu clarified.

"This is going to be a long marriage," Temari repeated to herself.

"And thick apparently," Yugito said with a smirk.

Fu barked out in laughter and raised her hand for a smacking, one which Yugito was all too happy to comply with. "Where is he anyway?" Fu asked.

"Shopping for clothes with Kurotsuchi," Temari replied.

"Oh, I can help with that," Fu said, jumping up from the table. "Oh, wait, do I have to pay?"

Temari shook her head, reaching into her pocket for some change. "I'll get it. You're going to fly down to him, right?"

Fu nodded.

"Just don't do anything in the changing rooms," Temari said, putting the correct amount on the table and getting up. "I'll be at the house. Try not to take too long."

Fu crossed her arms and wiggled her eyebrows a little bit. "Looks like I'm not the only one drooling."

Temari's eye twitched. "Like I said…"

"Right, right," Fu said, turning to Yugito. "Do you want a ride?"

Yugito got up as well. "Sure. I've never flown before. Sounds nice."

Fu quickly hopped up on the woman's back and wrapped her limbs around the woman. "On your marks, get set, go!"

Instead of being lifted off her feet into the air, like she had been expecting, Yugito's back started burning from caustic tailed beast chakra. She yelped and threw Fu off her back like she would an article of clothing that was on fire, and backed away. The girl landed with a thud in front of them. Red chakra was swallowing up her entire body and was quickly turning black from a radiation point on her back. Her face was a twisted mask of fear and confusion as Chomei's chakra ate her up from the outside. Her face was covered and a skeleton quickly manifested, settling above her frame.

The monster that was Fu stood up and looked at them like a wild animal would, sizing them up, seeing what kind of threats they could be.

Seeing who would be the easiest to kill.

Chakra wings sprouted from her back and lifted her up in the air, where Chomei's true body began to manifest itself.

Temari and Yugito couldn't believe their eyes at what they were seeing. How had the girl lost control? She always had control over herself. "We need to alert the sealing team!" Temari shouted. "Where are they?"

Yugito's chakra cloak lit up her body and an arm wrapped around the other girl's body. "I'll get them. You alert Jiraiya. You can fly, right?"

"I can… glide, a little bit," Temari answered, regretting every word coming from her mouth and thanking whatever religion was in charge that she brought her war fan with her.

Without another word of warning, Yugito's chakra arm wound back and threw Temari at the general direction of the hospital… halfway across the village.

It was going to be a wild flight to be sure, Yugito knew. But they all had jobs to play when the shit hit the fan.

00000000

Naruto and Kurotsuchi ran out the store, eyeing around for where the intruder was. Sakura had told everyone what had happened when she woke up and knew about the masked man's conversations with his would-be ally. The way they conversed made it seem like they had time, a week or two at least, to shore up their defenses and prepare for another attack.

No such luck, as it would seem.

"Where do we go?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"The house?"

"Nobody's going to be at the house," Kurotsuchi said, looking down at the ground as she tried to think. She remembered back to the siege of Konoha, fighting for her life in the streets with no direction at all. She didn't want that again. A stratified chain of command with some sense of direction does a soldier good.

The clothing store they ran out of was on one of the inner mountains making up Kumogakure and also part of the commercial district. Added to that was a good view of the center of the village, where the kage administration was; a building that almost completely enveloped the tallest mountain in the range. And from behind that building, a giant beetle with a strangely armored head and six wings flew from behind of it. It landed on top of the mountain and undulated its body up and down to screech terribly across the range.

Even from the distance they were from it, Naruto and Kurotsuchi had to hold their ears to their head lest their eardrums explode. "Is that Fu?!" Naruto yelled out, his hearing dull and muted.

"Unless you know any other Jinchuuriki for a giant flying fucking beetle!"

"We need to help her!"

She looked at him like he was speaking in tongues. "I'm not a monster like everyone else. I'm sure you could do your thing, but I get near that, I die."

A mass of crimson blackness percolated around its mouth and began to grow in monstrous size. Naruto didn't know what it was, but he surmised that it couldn't be anything good.

And then it turned to look at them, its head and upper chest obscured by the beast bomb. Naruto's eyes widened and red chakra flowed up his body, manifesting in a two-tailed cloak. He grabbed Kurotsuchi and launched himself away to another of the mountain peaks. His chakra ate at her a little bit, but it was leagues better than being in the path of whatever was in Chomei's mouth.

For Kurotsuchi's part, she grunted and winced, but never cried out in pain. She was a trucker, that girl.

He impacted the base of the peak and set Kurotsuchi down on the nearest path, standing up to get a good look at the tailed beast rearing up and getting ready to obliterate part of the village. A cold hand of helplessness rooted him in place.

Not again.

Another situation where he couldn't do anything. Another situation where everyone's lives depended on action and he had no action to give. The chakra cloak dissipated and he crouched down, hands grabbing the dirt.

Why couldn't he do anything?

Giant purple tentacles flowed from inside the building out to wrap around the beetles head and body, wrenching its aim upwards and jettisoning the bomb into the sky. The rest of the purple monstrosity flowed out – a giant with the torso of a human and the head of an ox – and began struggling with the monster in turn.

No.

"Naruto?" Kurotsuchi asked, running up to put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay? We need to get out of here.

He stood up and stared at what Fu had become. What was he going to be if he couldn't leap into action when someone he loved was in trouble? The cloak came back, enhancing his features and making him look more bestial. Kurotsuchi took a step back.

"I'm going to help her," he said with a strained voice. "I don't know how, but I will. I have to. And don't say I don't. I do."

"You… you have to do whatever you have to do, but-" Kurotsuchi interrupted herself to look at the titans tangle together.

"But even if it looks hopeless I have to try."

"You might die. You might die for no goddamn reason." Her voice scratched and broke at the end. Contemplating his end was too much for her.

"I… I love her. You get that, right? I can't not do anything." His voice was pained. He was battling with himself. One side knew that if he jumped in the fray he would be nothing but a hindrance. Another part found it unacceptable to sit back and not do anything.

Kurotsuchi's lips thinned. There had to be an answer. Any one would work. "She's going to be okay," Kurotsuchi blurted out as his crouched down and got ready to jump. He looked at her questioningly. Kurotsuchi nodded. "We have Jiraiya, Bee, and Yugito. They can wrestle her down. You make sure no one get hurt with collateral. You can help. But you can also be safe. That's okay, right?"

Right?

00000000

Jiraiya stumbled down, nearly swiping ink across the entire scroll and ruining his progress. He was still dizzy and grumbled and in pain and still not accustomed to having only one arm. And now, he had to subjugate a tailed beast.

No pressure, right?

Mabui, Ai's secretary, walked back and forth in front of the window. She had a calm outward demeanor, but Jiraiya knew she was freaking out mentally. She was looking at a battle of tailed beasts from outside a window for the love of god.

"Do you… need anything?" she asked. There was a quaver in her voice, which she ruthlessly suppressed.

"Concentration," he said, blinking out the black from his eyes. "That, and pain meds."

The woman nodded and darted out of the room, probably very happy to no longer be in such immediate vicinity of the fighting. Not that that would do her any good if Fu got a good hit on the building.

Jiraiya closed his eyes and rubbed them with the back of his wrist. The whole one-arm thing was taking some serious getting used to. And a trial by fire including a Jinchuuriki battle in the middle of one of the most populated places on the continent wasn't something he wanted to face. What happened to retirement? He knew he would never be allowed to completely retire, but come on, not even one day?

Christ, he needed to teach Naruto how to seal. And also how to run a spy network. And also the secrets of sage chakra.

But first, he needed to make sure everyone made it out alive. And that meant inscribing a seal on paper that will relinquish a Jinchuuriki, who has gone into their full-tailed beast form, of their power, while suffering from a lack of sleep, while buzzed up with hospital drugs, with one arm.

It was going to make for a hell of a story, that was for sure.

00000000

Yugito alighted down next to the sealing corps., who were preparing their chakra chains that would hopefully work for a different tailed beast. By theory, it should, but tailed beasts had a knack for being unpredictable in the strangest of ways.

"Is everyone here?!" Yugito shouted.

Bee had managed to wrestle Fu to one of the unoccupied peaks of the range, where he was trying to bring her to some solid ground and hopefully rip enough parts off of her that the regeneration of said parts would tide some of her ferocity. They were on the opposite peak, waiting to give Bee the signal to move Fu over within range of the sealing corps. and their chains.

She didn't want to join in immediately as there would be too much risk of cross fire. Cross fire, which could kill thousands of civilians within a single second.

Despite all the potential of destruction and loss of life, despite Bee wrestling a tailed beast that lost control and despite everyone else that depended on her, she was worried most for Naruto. She hadn't felt his chakra surge so that meant he was still in control, but that also meant she didn't know for sure if he was okay.

She really hoped he was okay.

00000000

Karui held up lit rods to signal her position and usher children down a hall into the interior of the mountain. Its insides were sturdy enough that it wouldn't crumble through anything smaller than a direct impact with one of those beast bombs. Each of the peaks had their own evacuation procedures that were currently going underway, but most of the shinobi had been delegated to the one she was on, the nearest to the fighting.

"Come on, come on, this way. No pushing. We're all going to be fine." She tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but no matter what she said, the kids wouldn't stop crying. From the faces of the older people, it looked like they had gotten used to tailed beasts flying around and causing mayhem, but this was a new sensation for the children.

"Do tailed beast fights usually take this long?" Omoi groused. Though he was doing his best to sound like normal, there was a shake in his voice that he couldn't hide. He was frightened and he had right to be.

"They do when he and Yugito spar," she responded.

The interior of the mountain shuddered, letting loose dirt and dust that had accumulated in the ceiling, prompting a wave of cries from children. Something had hit the mountain. "This isn't a spar," Omoi reminded her sourly.

She narrowed her eyes as the tide of oncoming children started to slow to a trickle. Something didn't feel right. This wasn't the only time she was doing that job. Hidden cloud drilled often in the case of an emergency and was pretty damn efficient at it, terror and fear aside. Karui had a sense for how many kids should have walked by and it was off by quite a bit.

Karui looked to Omoi. From his facial expression, she could tell he was thinking similar things.

"Something's not right," she said.

"Just what I was thinking." He dropped his lit rod and started jogging for the exit with Karui bringing up the rear.

They were going to get those kids, goddamnit.

00000000

Naruto landed on a heap of rubble and looked around. Kurama's chakra had supercharged his senses. He could hear and feel things no one else could. And he could hear sobbing. The sobbing of children.

He looked around some more. Most of the peak was untarnished, but there were a few places that got hit with stray chakra blasts. The fight looked like it was getting resolved, with Fu struggling against both Bee and chakra chains.

Where was that sobbing coming from? He could hear it. Hell, he could practically feel it.

Wait. He _could_ feel it. He knelt down and pressed his ear against the rubble. The sounds of crying intensified.

That was unexpectedly easy.

He grabbed the pieces of rubble as easily as one would lift pebbles and threw them aside. Piece by piece, bit by bit, he uncovered an alleyway between two buildings that had partially collapsed, trapping its inhabitants inside.

They were all kids with one delirious chunin, probably a teacher, huddled down in various states of mental disrepair. They looked up, dumbstruck by the sight in front of them. Naruto let the chakra cloak dissipate and fell down to them. "Is anybody hurt?" he asked.

All the kids looked at the chunin. There was rag wet with blood on his temple. It probably wasn't serious, but he wasn't lucid enough to communicate. "Are you all students at a ninja academy?"

One of them stepped forward. A little girl with her chin stuck forward. There were tracks of tears rolling down her cheeks, but her eyes were resolute in the moment. "Azuma-sensei is the only one hurt. And yes… we're all academy students."

"What happened?"

"We were evacuating when our path got closed off. Azuma-sensei tried to get us through a different way, but then something hit near here and everything got blocked off."

Naruto nodded. "Right, well, the fighting's nearing the end. We're probably safe from those two, but we need to get everyone out as soon as we can. Can any of you wall walk?"

"We haven't learned that yet," the girl said.

Naruto put his hands on his hips and smiled at them like a fox. "Then hop on and I'll get you out." He turned around and knelt down. "Two at a time. Single file. Come on."

As he carried the children up and out of the hole, he made sure to keep a close eye on the subjugation of Fu. Whatever kind of fight it was supposed to be, it was close. Fu, or whatever was in charge, didn't want to go down without a fight and did everything she could to break free. Even with the chains wrapped around her appendages and wings, she managed to fly Bee up and down a couple of times before slamming back down to the peak. The fighting wasn't pretty, but the sealing corps. looked like they knew what they were doing.

"Are we going to be okay?" One the kids asked from his back.

"Of course," Naruto said with a pointed thumbs up and a wide grin. "Your ninja know what they're doing."

Soon, they were all out except for the little girl and the teacher, who she was dragging forward for him to take.

"First you, then him," Naruto tried to say as sternly as he could.

She shook her head. "I'm the leader. I go last."

"You're also a kid. Kids go first."

"I'm not a kid. I'm a ninja."

He wanted to argue more, but a pained scream from Fu reminded him that there wasn't much time to waste. "Okay," he said, shouldering the older man. "But get ready to point me to where the evacuation route is."

On his way up, he heard distant murmurings and the voices of two others, adults probably. When he crested through the hole, he saw two shinobi questioning the kids. "Do you know the way to the evacuation route?" Naruto asked, hefting the man to the ground.

The female shinobi nodded, taking the new development in stride. "Come on kids," Karui said. "We need to go back to…" Karui muddled on, looking at the titan fight. Her eyes were wide with horror. "Run! Now! That direction! Go Go Go!"

Naruto saw what got her so scared. Fu's head was pointing in their direction, a scarlet black ball forming in her maw. "Shit!" He dove back into the hole after the last girl.

"We don't have time for that!" Omoi warned. "We need to get out of here."

"Of course we have time!" Naruto shouted back, while grabbing the girl. He hurried up the hole and broke out into a sprint after the backs of Karui and the rest of the children. Omoi was in the back, casting a fearful glance in his direction.

There was the sound of a loud snap reverberating across the mountain tops. Naruto looked over and saw the ball of death barreling towards him. Thinking quick and acting quicker, he lobbed the girl as hard as could at Omoi.

The last thing he saw before getting blasted away was her caught in his arms, yelling back at him.

00000000

Jiraiya slapped the seal on the nape of Fu's neck and jumped away from the struggling beast. Almost immediately, it had an effect on her. She stopped struggling and fell slack against the chains holding her down. It didn't take long at all for her to shrink down to a fraction of her size.

He stepped back and looked at the last bit of defiance that Fu had. No matter what they did, they couldn't get her to look away from the surrounding mountains when she launched that beast ball. It was much smaller than it could have been, but it still left a sizeable crater in its wake.

Yugito stepped up next to him. "That took way too long," she mumbled.

Jiraiya nodded, wanting nothing more than to fall in a bed and not wake up for a week. "That looks like it took out a lot of houses. Did they evacuate in time?"

"They should have," she said. "Otherwise, they're dead."

"Yup." Jiraiya glanced down at Fu. She was back to being a normal girl. Knocked unconscious, but normal by anyone's judgement. "She's going to feel terrible when she wakes up."

"Does the seal have side-effects?" she asked.

He gestured to the destruction she caused. "Can you imagine how someone would feel after causing… something like… this?"

By the time he was done talking, Yugito's face had lost much of its humor. "Quite clearly."

"Well, then you're best for her to talk to when she gets up," Jiraiya said, not breaking stride and also leaving the scene in search of a suitable bed and more pain meds.

00000000

One day later.

Naruto woke up to the sound of muted and very spirited arguing. The voices were familiar, but unrecognizable. He was back in a hospital. In fact, it was the same hospital he had woken up from days earlier. Hell, maybe even the same room.

"You're up."

Naruto looked over and saw Temari sitting down by his bed, looking down at something she was fidgeting with in her hands. He took in a deep breath and sat up. Everything from the chest down was covered in bandages and his right arm wasn't responding very well to his commands. "Is the girl safe?" he asked.

Temari let a small smile come to her lips. "Everyone made it out. I heard the kids' accounts. You're quite the hero, you know. At least to them. If it weren't for you, they'd all be dead."

He looked down at his bandaged arms. "I don't feel like a hero. If I were faster, I wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"And how should that stop you from feeling like a hero? Some people don't feel good at all unless they've sacrificed something like that."

"Because then, you wouldn't have worried. And I'm guessing just about everyone else was worrying too."

She stopped doing whatever she was doing with her hands to look at him. "I… want to shout at you and yell at you for being careless. I want to berate you for making me worry. But that won't solve anything. Because I know that if you stood by and did nothing for my sake, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself."

It was Naruto's turn to smile. How perfectly like her. "And everyone else?"

Temari shrugged. "Fu woke up a couple hours ago and hasn't said anything. Kurotsuchi was in hysterics. Mei was… well, it's always hard to tell what she's thinking, but she looked sadish. Yugito didn't look too pleased either. And now, she's arguing with Jiraiya over something. I don't know what, so don't ask me."

"Sakura, Kakashi?"

"Sakura stitched you back together. Your arm flew off. Good thing we still had it, else you'd be walking around with a prosthetic. Which, not the worst thing in the world; especially if we had Kankuro here. And Kakashi just looked exasperated if nothing else. You pull this type of thing quite a lot, after all."

"Can't deny it."

The arguing stopped with a fizzle and a pop. She held up what she was working on with a half-grin. It was a piece of fabric with two needles at the top of it. "I'm taking up knitting," she said. "I know it's pretty domestic, but it's relaxing. I like it."

Naruto nodded. "Good for you… what now?"

"We're all going to mist. Except you and maybe Fu, depending on what Yugito and Jiraiya agree on."

Naruto's brow crossed. "What?"

The door flung open with a grim Yugito striding in followed by an irate Jiraiya. "W-" her voice broke at the sight of him. She coughed into her arm and addressed him again. "We're going to get you and Fu mastered with your tailed beasts' chakras. Then you're going to train with Jiraiya."

Naruto blinked and waited a couple of seconds for any follow up.

"Okay," he said, once he realized nothing else was coming.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Mei awkwardly patted Kurotsuchi on the back as she puked into the deep blue water below. "There, there," she said, much to the girl's ire.

"I'm fine," She growled out with spite seemingly being the only reason for her continued speech. As soon as she finished talking, another wave of nausea forced itself up out of her stomach, making her puke even more into the sea.

"There, there," Mei said, patting the girl on the back.

"I didn't think she would be the one to suffer from sea-sickness," Temari said, joining the two on the prow of the ship.

"What made you think that?" Mei questioned.

"I'd bet she would stave it off from sheer anger alone."

"I'm not always angry," Kurotsuchi muttered, looking down at the waves as they undulated up and down.

Up and down.

Up and down.

"You're right," Temari said, nodding her head up and down. "You're not _always_ angry. You're just usually angry."

"Fuck off."

"Like right now."

"I'd kill you if we were on flat land."

"Well first of all," Temari paused as Kurotsuchi clutched the railing and looked like she was about to throw more chunks to the wind. When nothing came, Temari continued, saying "First of all, no you wouldn't. I'm easily stronger than you. Second, we're not on dry land, so get fucked.."

Kurotsuchi's response was to flip the bird and say, "At least one of us is getting fucked." Something which Temari found amusing to no end.

Mei hopped up on the railing and gazed at the horizon, at the dots of land popping up every now and then. She took a deep breath of the salty air and smiled. It was good to be back home.

Kurotsuchi vomited again.

"Should I call Sakura over?" Mei asked. "I know you're seasick and all, but don't you think this is a bit much?"

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Temari said, as carefree as the wind.

"Fuck… everything…" The seasick girl in question groused, launching herself away from the edge and towards the undercarriage where Sakura was. There had to be something to knock her out for another 36 hours. She'd only been on it for 12 and that was already way too much.

As Kurotsuchi trundled along like a severe alcoholic would away from a watering hole, Temari joined Mei at gazing at the horizon.

"So," Mei said with a smirk. "Now your husband and Yugito are off alone somewhere. Any twinges of jealousy?"

Temari shrugged. "Not really. I like her. And seeing how the two of them have bled into each other thus far, it would be reductive of me to wish ill will."

Mei smiled knowingly at the girl. "You're bi, aren't you?"

Temari quirked a brow at the woman. "At this point, Kurotsuchi is the only one who isn't. And even that's suspect to change by the time this is all over."

Mei put a hand over her chest in mock outrage. "My word, to presume my sexuality. Do you have no shame?"

"What I don't have are any refutations of my presumption from you."

Mei tilted her head to her. "Indeed you don't."

Temari cracked a smile, considering their exchange for a couple of seconds in her head and looking back to the door leading to the undercarriage, Kurotsuchi on her mind. "Huh… I'm probably going to have sex with that girl by the time this is all through." If anything, she sounded contemplative. It was a weird thing to say contemplatively.

"That depends if she reciprocates his feelings, and or directly engages with him. The latter seems unlikely…"

"And the former is only going to happen if he actively pursues with her. Which, knowing him…"

"Indeed, he hasn't been very dominant throughout this whole shebang, has he?"

"Not that you know of," Temari said, a smiled tugging at her lips.

Mei gained an impish look as she glanced at Temari. "Oh, is there something I should know?"

Temari's smile vanished at the same time as her jovial attitude. "I don't know? Is there?"

Mei's face soured and she looked away, back to the view of the islands in the distance. Back to her home. "I'm just having a bit of fun, is all. No need to take it so personally."

"Would it surprise you if I said that I'm not having fun here?"

Mei hated that. She'd had enough of serious conversations. She didn't want any more. The actions of the rebellion had devolved into what amounted to terrorism by the end of the war. Time spent not thinking about her decisions from back then was time well spent in her mind.

Mei decided to humor her. "And why not?"

Temari listed off the reasons on her fingers. "My loved one is depressed. The girl I share a bed with is unstable. They're being hunted by… I don't even know what anymore. And now they're off on some secluded island training to subjugate their tailed beasts, instead of here, with me. So no, I'm not having fun. I'm doing work."

"My work is my fun," Mei said, as carefree as the wind.

"Your work involves how my husband performs in bed?"

"He's my husband too, you know."

One of Temari's eyes twitched from annoyance. "I know you do it on purpose," she said slowly. "Everyone does. But that's your intention; otherwise you wouldn't do it."

Mei hummed quizzically.

"Hiding your emotions. How you speak. How your face looks. How you dress. How you feel." Temari joined her by the railing, leaning her elbows against them and looking at the same horizon Mei was. "It makes talking to you a pain and trying to understand you even worse. In all honestly, I hate interacting with you. People hiding how they feel… it's hard to deal with."

Mei's face remained the same as ever. Gazing over the water in such a way that Temari might have believed she wasn't even listening.

"What are your intentions with him?" Temari asked.

Mei didn't answer. She didn't speak again, choosing to close her eyes and lean back, letting the rocking of the boat lull her into rhythm with the sea. Temari clicked her tongue and followed the path Kurotsuchi took back below deck.

00000000

"Wow, you sure picked a great place to fight a civil war for, didn't you?" Kurotsuchi said sarcastically, face still dangerously pale as she stepped off the boat and back onto sweet, dry land.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mei asked, breathing in the salty, watery air. Nothing beat being home.

"You can't see jack shit, is what it means." Kurotsuchi's feet were still wobbling and she had to step carefully lest she faceplant. "Does the mist ever go away?"

"It wouldn't be a village hidden in it if it did," Mei said simply. In truth, it did, very often in fact. But it was sporadic and often hard to predict.

"At least in rock, we can see each other."

Mei pushed her index finger in Kurotsuchi's side suddenly, unbalancing the girl and causing her to fall face first into the ground, where she lay, breathing in and out and getting a feel for dry land. Though it was meant as a way to not so subtly show Kurotsuchi her ire, the woman had a feeling that laying on the grass was better for her.

She checked behind her at the railway to make sure the rest of the entourage were coming. Kurotsuchi had the worst of the symptoms of sea sickness, but almost everybody had been affected by it in some way or another. And as amusing as it was to see Onoki with a green face, it was definitely not as amusing to listen to him piss and moan the entire way through.

"Mei!"

The woman being shouted at turned to the boy shouting at her and let a small smile fill her lips. "Chojuro," she called back fondly, waving in turn.

Chojuro was jogging up to her as Ao followed from a way back, walking more sedately. There were new furrows in his brow, probably from dealing with mist while she was away, but he also did appear to be relieved at the sight of her.

As soon as the boy was within talking distance, he started babbling off questions to her. How are you? How was the trip? Is your husband an ass? Do you have any luggage? Are you feeling okay?

Though to others it might seem a bit too much, Mei was happy that he was excited. He usually approached everything meekly and with a quiet voice. It was like seeing a small dog up and about when it usually cowered at others' presences.

"I'm okay Chojuro," Mei said calmly. She then went off to answer his myriad questions with one or two answer responses and walk forward to Ao. "We'll speak more when I'm situated."

Ao walked up to her and nodded his head in a slight bow. "It's nice to have you back," he said. "I've taken care of the village in your absence, though it's been a bit of a tough ride."

Mei's smile never vanished. "As I'm sure it would have been. How's the public reception been?"

It was obvious what she was referring to. She wanted to know how the public was reacting to her being in a marriage with four other women and girls. She just didn't verbalize it that way. Ao nodded and turned his head to the village center for a second or two. "It was… rocky at the start, to say anything. Indeed, it's still not the best it could be, but ever since the trade routes got established and more products are easily attainable, it's improved. There are still those that don't see you as fit to rule, however."

She had a feeling that was going to be the case. She'd been very popular in the weeks after abdicating Yagura of his throne, however, that popularity waned when she took up the mantle of rebuilding mist back up to where it could be, as sacrifices had to be made to that cause. Higher taxes was almost never a good way to build support from the people. And when she broke the news to her most loyal subjects about the marriage idea, there was a huge amount of pushback, most notably from Ao and Chojuro.

"I see," she said, nodding her head. "Have there been any murmurings of revolt?"

He was quick to shake his head. "Drunken ramblings here and there, but no one wants to start something else so soon after the last civil war. Besides, political marriage or not, you're leagues better than Yagura ever was."

The corner of her mouth twitched a little bit at the mention of 'marriage'. She knew that she sometimes misunderstood his statements in regards to her relationship status and she may or may not perhaps overreact somewhat in those situations. Who wouldn't? She couldn't do that anymore, however. It wouldn't make any sense. Perhaps that line of reasoning sounded a bit too logical for what amounted to a situation dealing mostly in emotions, but that didn't refute it.

She was married now.

Faithfully married.

She turned around to look at the rest of the disembarking crew. They were all getting off now. Ai and Onoki and Shibuki and Jiraiya and Kakashi and Sakura and Temari. Their crew had been reduced and with them, their liveliness.

Temari stopped by the ramp to check up on the still recumbent Kurotsuchi, shaking her a little bit to make sure she was still conscious. Mei didn't make any delusions. The trip to her home nation sucked. Like, a lot.

She missed Naruto. And she missed Fu. Hell, she even missed Yugito. Now, all she had was Temari, who didn't know how to take a goddamn joke and Kurotsuchi, who was what amounted to an adolescent boy in temperament, thought, and action.

There were the others too, but they kept to themselves. It was nigh on impossible to carry on a topic with any of them.

Her expression lost its luster and she deflated, shoulders sagging and a long breath leaving her lips. Before the raid on the cavern that held Bee, Naruto had opened up to her slightly while they were alone. Being an orphan, he was alone all his life and without a family, which is why he wanted to be a Hokage, so that he would be respected and people would have to like him. That reason gradually changed for him. The way he interacted with all of them was as close to a familial bond as he had and he loved it more than anything else he'd experienced. And, more than that, he wanted that relationship to spread through all of Konoha, making everyone his family.

It was a nice sentiment he had. And for a second, she had deluded herself into thinking into something along the same lines. She liked being with them, sharing laughs and shouts and tears and just about everything.

But no, it was obvious that it wasn't real. Not in any tangible way. They weren't a family. They weren't even close.

"Mei?" Ao asked, brows furrowed from concern. "Are you okay?"

Mei cleared her throat and turned back to him. "Yes, I'm okay. What are we standing around for? I need to get back to work while I can."

00000000

Elsewhere,

Sasuke's hand twitched to his sword. In front of him was the stalwart figure that had haunted for so long. His older brother.

Itachi.

The older Uchiha took a step forward and the younger's hand grabbed his sword, pulling it out of its sheathe. They were standing on a dirt road which went from one small village to another. One might chalk it up to chance that they met on that road, but Sasuke knew that couldn't be the case.

"Have you finally decided to try and kill me?" Sasuke asked, a snarl on his lips. His heart was pounding. There was sweat on his temple. It took his all just to push those words out. This wasn't supposed to be happening. He was supposed to hunt Itachi. Not the other way around.

Itachi remained wordless as he bent his knees and got into a simple fighting stance. This wasn't how he wanted Sasuke to end things, but events had conspired against him. If his little brother was going to go back to the village that he loved so much that he killed his entire clan for it, things would have to end. Even now, he could barely stand from how much pain his body was in from the sickness.

It would have to end.

For the love god, it would have to end.

00000000

Mei took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, remembering and savoring the scent of her office. She remembered the first time she had walked inside of it, smelling the same smell that Yagura had smelled when he ruled over hidden mist. The smell had given her pervasive headaches for the first week, but she refused to add any perfumes or scented candles to make it smell different.

Now?

Now it smelled like home. Real home. Not the home you feel when you walk by familiar architecture, but the home you feel when you at last sit in your bed.

Yes, she was back.

And then Ao came in through the door with a stack of paperwork so high that he rested his chin on the top to keep it from collapsing.

Ah yes… Home.

"Hey now, don't look so disappointed," Ao said mirthfully. "You signed up for this, remember?"

"I know I signed up for _something_ ," she said, resting her head on a bridge she made with her hands. "I'm not sure if it was _this_."

They had gone through that routine perhaps tens of times already. It looked like neither had gotten too sick of it yet. He walked forward and plopped the papers down on her desk. The air it displaced whooshed by with finality in its breath.

Back to work.

There would be a brief aside where they all go to the land of iron where the minor village alliance would hopefully be happening, but after that… she eyed the papers distrustfully.

It wasn't that she disliked her work. She'd rather be a state builder than a revolutionary rebel any day of her goddamn life. It was just… quiet now.

Quiet… she liked quiet, didn't she? Quiet meant no screams of pain and no explosions off in the distance. Quiet meant no hushed whispering in a command tent figuring out which location to strike next. Quiet meant peace. Quiet meant good.

But quiet was lonely, wasn't it?

"Where's Chojuro?" Mei asked, looking up at Ao and away from her paperwork for a few seconds.

His single eye widened and looked away. "He's showing around your… uhm, your… the uh… the girls who uhm…"

His confused stammering worried Mei for a few moments before she realized what he was doing. He was trying to say 'sister-wives' in any other way than saying 'sister-wives'.

"My sister-wives?" Mei asked playfully.

His mouth pressed to a thin line and he regained his composure. "Yes. Them." His head was titled down with slight shame. "And, uhm… if it wouldn't be too impolite of me to ask…"

Her eyes closed as she smiled at him. "Yes?" She asked, drawing it out.

Ao usually wasn't one to mince words. Especially when things got serious. "Are you… doing okay?"

One of her eyebrows quirked up questioningly. That was it? "Yes, I'm perfectly fine."

He was drumming his index finger against his thigh. "And your… husband. That situation- that's perfectly fine too?"

Her face remained static as she processed his words. She looked down back at her paperwork and took a piece from the top, settling it in front of her. Mei was under no delusions about it. The reason she had put her hat in the ring for wifehood in the first place was because she had given up. No romantic love for her. No one to connect her heart to and spend countless nights just being around each other. Nope. Just a kid for the sake of her country. He was asking if she was still okay with it. And she was.

She just wished it didn't feel so lonely. Work kept her busy and away from thoughts of what her future looked like. And the mountain of paperwork standing defiantly against her gave her a slight inclination that perhaps that was it. Her future in paper form.

She nodded. "He's been a perfect gentleman. Well, as perfect as a teenager could be…" She paused slightly, brows furrowing as she looked back up at him. "I… I wasn't like that when I was a teenager, was I?"

Ao looked from side to side, unsure of how to respond. "Erm… well, I've never met Naruto, so I couldn't say. What I can say is that you were the pride of the rebellion when you were his age. You never gave up, no matter what happened. No matter what obstacle was in your way, you never wavered. You never gave up. And look," he said, gesturing around the office with his hands. "It all paid off."

She smiled a little bit, gaze filtering downwards. "Yes," she said. Mei took in a deep breath and swiped the paper from the top of the stack and put it in front of her. "It all paid off."

00000000

"Oh, for the lord above and everything else between, does this feel good," Kurotsuchi said in all one exhale as she sank into the steaming water. Her head titled back and rested on the hard volcanic rock, eyes closed as she savored the feeling of the hot water permeating her body. The trip to the infamous hot springs of the hidden mist was doing its job at the moment.

Temari eyed the girl from across the pool, smirking in amusement from the way her body melted into the water. She was feeling a little bit of ancillary joy from Kurotsuchi's relaxation. Listening to her minge and moan for 48 hours was enough for Temari to start feeling shitty for the sake of the other girl. Watching all the toxicity sap away was… oddly satisfying.

"I could get used to this," Kurotsuchi murmured.

Temari nodded along with her and sank further into the hot water herself. She was starting to think she wasn't really a bath kind of person, but she could appreciate a little bit of communal relaxation.

"So what's it like being the leader of a village?" Kurotsuchi asked explosively.

There had been silence for maybe 3 seconds between them. Temari started to think that Kurotsuchi wasn't really a bath person either. Temari shrugged. "Mostly just a shit ton of paperwork that doesn't make sense and feels like it could be done more efficiently in another way. When I get back, it's going to be more about public appearances, overseeing other people doing work, and other stuff."

"Sounds like a cushy gig."

Temari shrugged. "I'm not in immediate danger any more. If there _is_ danger, then I'm on the front lines, to be sure, but now people are willing to die for me instead of the other way around."

Kurotsuchi whistled appreciatively. "That sounds like it sucks."

"It sucks and it doesn't suck."

A silence fell over them for another time. "What's it feel like to get dicked?" Kurotsuchi asked, just as explosively as the first time.

Temari's face scrunched inwards from the crassness of the question. "You have no eloquence."

"I have no idea what that means."

Temari sighed. "Feels good."

"That it?"

"Yup."

A couple seconds of silence.

"You sure?"

Temari let her head swivel on the rock so she could make eye contact with Kurotsuchi. She tried to talk again, but realized she didn't have an answer for her. Temari glanced away until she could come up with an appropriate answer. "I don't know… when I was a virgin, sex was this monolithically huge important giant thing that separated me from the adults. It was the special thing that only special people do. Now that I've done it, it's just… mundane now. It's just something that I do and something that happens to me. It feels good. I like it."

"What a slut," Kurotsuchi said, doing her best to keep the smile from showing on her face.

Temari let a chuckle spill from her mouth. "If that makes me a slut, I'm the sluttiest of the bunch. And god, if I don't love it. Why are you asking?"

Kurotsuchi rolled her head back so it had a good view of the orange sky. It was just about evening now. "Just curious."

"I mean, like…" Temari sat up in the water so that her shoulders were exposed to the air. Kurotsuchi sat up in response. The sand wife leaned in a little bit like she was about to divulge a great secret and the rock wife leaned in with baited breath. "It hurts like a motherfucker the first time."

"Is he big?" Kurotsuchi whispered scandalously.

"I don't… know," Temari said, doubting her own knowledge. "It's the first one I've ever seen, so I don't have a reference point, but the way Fu talks about it…"

"Wait, has she seen another one?"

Temari shrugged. "I don't think so. She was definitely a virgin, but the way she talks about… it, makes it seem like a fucking monster."

Kurotsuchi tilted her head. "I mean, she _is_ smaller."

Temari nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Maybe it's just a proportional thing, but… man, I just can't say for sure."

Kurotsuchi looked down and to the side. "I hope they're okay," she whispered softly, so much so that Temari doubted what she heard for a split second.

Temari's mouth pressed into a thin line. She followed Kurotsuchi's body language. "I hope so too. But they're strong. If anyone could get out of it, it would be them."

Kurotsuchi blew out a hefty lung-full of air at the night sky. "Yeah, they're strong but… if it's not the challenges outside that wear you down, then it has to be something else. Nobody is invincible like that."

"Well…" Temari didn't know what to say at that. "Well, I have faith in them."

"That's good," Kurotsuchi said softly, her mood soured by the subject she brought up herself. "They need that."

00000000

Mei smiled distastefully at the man in front of her. In one of his hands was a glass of wine half-empty and four times refilled. He was portly and didn't know how to hold his liquor nor his tongue. He was also clad in decadent finery the likes of which most people in the room could only dream of. A noble of a nation to the south of Water. An important fellow, considering his nation, though small, made up a large sum of her mission requests. Importance aside, he openly stared at her tits, even when talking to her, and had a crass way of speaking. More than once already, he had made 'jokes' about giving her village large sums of money for only a night with the woman.

Hate was a strong word and she reserved it only for the most reprehensible of people. It didn't suit him. Less than hate, she found him absolutely deplorable. And it didn't take a high intelligence to figure out why the model-like woman with a fake smile plastered on her face was hanging onto his elbow like a lifeline, laughing at all of his unfunny jokes and listening with rapt attention whenever he had something 'insightful' to say.

And through it all, Mei grinned and nodded along with his words. She needed his business after all. More than that, however, she was looking for an excuse, any at all, to get away from his dribbling mouth and vapid stories to just about anyone else in the room.

Well, maybe not anyone.

She was at a 'surprise party', or as much as a surprise party anything could be to the leader of all the ninja in a certain region. Despite Chojuro's fervent denial of such a thing if he were pressed, the event wasn't really for her. It was for all the people who influenced the village and supported her coup. It was so they could see that the leadership was still helping the village and, more importantly, their interests. She _did_ fight a war and those tend to cost money. Rare was the bill paid with the patriotic good feelings of the people. And the ones who invested wanted a return on investment. That in and of itself wasn't bad. She was prepared for that. She was even prepared for the occasional lewd comment, sordid backtalk, and undertones of sexual energy from nearly everyone who wanted something from her. She was using her body and her personality to her advantage in that regard, prying information from someone thinking with their dicks (or clits, for that matter) more than their heads.

It was a strategy. A big game.

The ones who thought they were clever were the easiest to manipulate. After all, they thought they knew something she didn't and could possibly lord it over her as a gambling card. Those gambits worked in their favor about as often as swine have taken to the skies. But, like the lord in front of her, there were also those whose interests were simple. They wanted to fuck hot chicks, go on decadent escapades, eat tremendous amounts of delicious foods, and drown in the finest of drinks. They wore their intentions on their sleeves and that made them easy to appease. At least until they turned their interest onto her. After all, what greater power trip was there than to thrust their pole or grind their cunt into the leader of a nation of shinobi? The answer being: few. And also by far seemingly the most attainable, especially when she owed them something.

Funny how that worked.

"Ah," Mei said, clasping her hands together and attracting her gaze elsewhere. "It seems my aide Ao is in need of my input on something. If you'll excuse me for a moment, we can continue this conversation another time."

Without waiting for another word to droop out of his gaping hole, Mei stalked away from him, beelining to a pillar of marble. The reception hall they were in was something of Yagura's make, before he went mad. It was large and stylish and spacious. His eye for the fine things were about as well tuned as his affinity for attempted genocide, it seemed.

She stepped behind the pillar, leaned her back against it, and belted out a sigh. She'd been going at it for about an hour already. Was there no end in sight? She peered behind the pillar to steal a glance at Tsunade. The woman had made it there slightly after her party and had spent most of the day trying out various watering dens while complaining to her now one-armed teammate. She was at the surprise party by a table with a variety of drinks. The woman hadn't even dressed for the occasion, deciding to go with her normal clothes. Mei wondered how she handled things over in leaf. Surely, she wasn't hounded after like Mei was. Leaf was by far the most influential village in the continent. If anything, she hounded others.

Tsunade took a swig of a drink straight from the bottle and burst out laughing at the absurdity of it, much to the chagrin of Jiraiya, standing nearby and also with no alcohol in his system. Mei had to wonder how that woman operated normally.

"Nice duds," Mei heard someone say past a mouth full of food. She turned around and saw Kurotsuchi standing simply with one hand full of some pastry or another. The girl was looking around at the architecture and the various people milling about in the hall. She was wearing a crimson dress that went down to her ankles and had even applied make-up.

"Thanks," Mei said, turning her face back into a smile. For herself, she was wearing a dark blue dress much like the one she normally wore, but with less function, more style, and more cleavage.

"You're really throwing those honkers out, aren'tcha?" Kurotsuchi asked, gesturing to her breasts with the hand full of food.

"It keeps others distracted," Mei said cordially. "That makes them easier to deal with."

The girl nodded, already losing interest in the line of conversation. Mei wasn't sure if that had to do with the topic of breasts or if she gave an answer the girl was expecting. Either way, they were suddenly lacking in the conversation department and Mei was hoping it would be one that would drag on so that a war hawk, pervy noble, or other nuisance wouldn't bother her. She'd already done the rounds. She didn't want to talk to them any more than duty dictated. And being alone was just asking for conversation.

"How are you liking my village?" Mei asked evenly.

Instead of giving a half-baked response like she had been expecting, Kurotsuchi leveled a suspicious gaze at her and shifted her position away from her. "You're getting worse. Is it the event, or everything else?"

One of Mei's eyebrows quirked upwards. "Excuse me?"

Kurotsuchi half-cringed away from the woman. "Man, it's like talking to one of Temari's brother's wooden puppets. If you don't want to talk to me, don't force yourself."

As Kurotsuchi made to walk away, Mei jolted forward and grabbed her by the sleeve. "No, it's not that," she said, glancing about to see if she had gained any attention from onlookers. They were still partially obscured by the pillars, so no one seemed to notice. "It's just the nature of these events," Mei said. "I have duties to fulfil."

Kurotsuchi didn't seem convinced. "Have you fulfilled these duties?"

Mei had to take a second to think about that. Had she? She had spoken to everyone individually and that was all that was truly socially required of her. But it was under the pretense of a party being thrown for her. She was sure that someone was going perform a speech or something. But it had already been more than an hour and the amount of people who were in no position to speak publicly was rising. "I might," she decided on noncommittally. "Anyway, it _was_ a serious question. How are you liking it here?"

Kurotsuchi clicked her tongue and settled back into a relaxed stance. "The people leave something to be desired, but just about everything else is pretty good, including that hot spring." By the end of her talking, Kurotsuchi had narrowed her eyes at Mei. It wouldn't be new information to say that Mei usually hid her emotions behind a mask, but at this point, it was like the woman was clad in armor. No weaknesses, no openings, no areas for humanity to develop. It was odd speaking to her.

And she was worried for her! She had every right to be. Kurotsuchi didn't dislike the older woman. Hell, she quite enjoyed the fact that she was open with how she thought, albeit through a mask and with flowery language. The Mei right now looked like a toy wound up way past the point it should ever get. She looked like she was about to snap, both metaphorically and literally. Like every cell in her body was contracting, waiting for something to kickstart her into sudden and profound action.

Kurotsuchi glanced around her, making eye contact with more than a few distinguished guests looking in on their conversation. When she looked back at the woman, she had some insight as to why she was like that. Kurotsuchi leaned in and whispered "Hey, do you wanna leave?"

Mei blinked once, twice, three times. "Excuse me?"

"You fucking heard me. It's like everyone here wants a pound of flesh."

Mei took a deep breath. "That's how it is when you're the leader. Everyone wants to be on top. Everyone wants more than they have and I'm the easiest way to get there for them. They want their pound of flesh and I'm doing my best to not give them any."

Kurotsuchi leaned back and looked at the gathering of people. She didn't like that answer. "Okay, but if you need an excuse, just wave me down, I'll make a scene or something."

Before Mei could ward her off that line of thought, Kurotsuchi was already gone into the crowd. She was something of a unique existence and thus garnered much attention. She was already talking to a crowd of people in a very Kurotsuchi-like manner when Mei stepped away from the marble pillar. There was a noble or two already breaking away from their conversations to come speak to her when they saw her alone. She was getting prepared to speak to them when she heard the sound of a utensil hitting a glass.

Everyone's attention was brought to a raised part of the court where announcements were made. A man with a towering and intimidating posture was standing at the center of it, one hand with a glass and the other with a fork. Mei sighed in relief at his sight. He was the leader of a clan of kekkai genkai users able to make profoundly realistic illusions. He helped Mei fight in the rebellion and was also one of her cohorts easiest to get along with. He wanted prestige and power and she gave that to him as reward for him helping her. And, surprisingly, he was one of the few that actually contented themselves with that.

The speech he made was standard fare for any of the myriad of events she had gone to thus far. He thanked the guests for their patronage, reminded them of the hell that Yagura's rule was, commended her for her role in turning it around and state building, commended her ability, intellect, and beauty, and raised a toast for all in her favor.

The glasses went up, some were downed, and others daintily put to lips. A cheer rung out and Mei smiled with a humbled expression as they all cheered for her.

And there were all the boxes checked. She could go fuck right off and nobody would give a word edgewise. Thank god for that.

After waiting about for a couple minutes, Mei made a generic excuse to the people around her and made towards the side exit of the hall. It led to a small hallway and out towards the back of the structure. No grand hall exit with gilded statues by its side. Just a concrete hall with a glowing 'exit' sign just above the door.

However, the hall wasn't vacated. Just at the exit was a tall woman, towering over even Mei, who was someone naturally gifted in the height department and also wearing heels. The woman was fat and old and had a slight dusting of red on her cheeks. Her mouth reeked of alcohol. Though slightly intoxicated, the woman was obviously still in control. "I thought I might meet you here," the woman slurred slightly. She was leaning on the wall with her shoulder, other arm outstretched and blocking the way out.

Saki Sakara. A crowned princess of a nation to the east. Said nation was very affluent and aided the rebellion greatly during the civil war. Mei, and all of the hidden mist, was forever in debt to her and her family. The woman had also made clear her intentions of bedding Mei in very… lewd ways of speaking. Mei was disgusted by her very existence, but knew she couldn't do anything outwardly to harm the woman. Her family was too important to the hidden mist.

"And so you have," Mei responded curtly.

One side of her mouth reached to an ear, so great the half-smile was. It was a face that exuded both danger and slyness. Not a good combination to see from someone another was indebted to. "You've been avoiding me," Saki said, slightly slurring her words.

Mei continued to smile. "What makes you say that?"

"This is the first we've spoken tonight. You're so good about that with the others… well, it _does_ make me feel a bit special, but not in a good way."

"If I have forgotten to speak with you, I can assure you…"

Saki reached over and cupped Mei's cheek with her hand. It took every fiber in Mei's being to not rip that woman's arm off right then and there. "Now… you and I both know that's not the case."

Her breath reeked, her hand was clammy, her everything was revolting.

But she had to smile.

She had to fucking smile.

"I keep on telling you over and over. Just one night. One night is all it takes for all the debt you owe my family to vanish. Poof. Like thin air."

Mei delicately pinched Saki's wrist and took it away from her face. "And as nice as that offer is, I'll have to, yet again, decline it."

"Ohh… Now why's that?" the woman asked, leaning in close enough for a kiss.

Mei had to suppress a small laugh. "Because I'm married."

"To a boy half your age."

" _I'm_ half _your_ age."

Saki frowned and leaned back, straightening out her shoulders and doing her best to look as big as possible, which wasn't hard considering her mass. "Do I have to remind you how much money my family sunk into your little rebellion?"

'There was a genocide happening.'

"If it weren't for us, you'd still be huddled around in tents thinking about your next move. It was us that gave you the resources you needed."

'We would have won without you.'

"And now, at the chance to make that obligation disappear, you pull away. What would your population think if they knew?"

'They'd understand if they saw you up close.'

Mei was keeping all those come-backs in check. The woman was just a bit drunk and feisty. Nothing to ruin the future of her village over. Nothing to commit murder over.

But did she desire.

All of Saki's supposed malice seemed to disappear from her face and she adopted a more relaxed posture. "I'm sorry, that was unbecoming of a lady such as myself. It's obvious my presence isn't wanted. I'll take my leave."

Mei didn't say anything as she brushed past her. A large portion of her was glad that nothing else happened and she was allowed to go back to her house and get some sleep.

And then a hand grabbed her by the ass.

Mei twirled around to face the obvious perpetrator. She wasn't sure what she might have done because any actions she could have taken were interrupted when Saki's smug, lecherous face swung around in the opposite direction like she had been struck by something hard.

A shimmer of the air and Temari came into existence, arm extended like she had just slapped someone. In her hand was a small collapsible fan. It still evidently retained some functionality, as it dripped with blood from the tip and there was a small splatter on the wall from the direction of the hit.

Saki looked like she was going to collapse for a fraction of a second before she righted her stance and looked at the girl who just bitch-slapped her. Her hand went to her cheek, feeling the slick red running down it. Temari didn't look the least bit regretful for her action. Instead, her hard brow just intensified at the look on the woman's face. "Do you know who I-"

CRACK!

Temari lashed out again, but this time hitting the side of her forehead, splitting open the skin and allowing a waterfall of blood to pour out. The woman screamed like a banshee as she held her head. "I'LL HAVE YOU FUCKING KILLED YOU BITCH!"

The girl's eyes narrowed. Her fan flipped open, showing that the edges of the fan were razor-sharp on the inside. She pushed it against Saki's throat, cutting into the blubbery skin slightly as she pushed her against the concrete wall. "One:" Temari said, her words as menacing as a rumbling volcano. "I don't know who you are. And I don't give a fuck. Two: be careful with where you levy your threats. I can kill you forty three different ways in three seconds. Three: if you ever make unwanted advances on Mei ever again, I'll carve out your uterus and rip off your clit. Understand?"

The woman's nose curled up. "I am Saki of the Sakara family. The hidden mist owes us a great debt from our service in the war. If they hear that her friend threatened to kill me, we'll pull all financial funding from the hidden mist. It'll bankrupt them."

Temari pulled the fan away and clicked it shut. Saki smirked in victory, only for her nose to be smashed in by Temari's fan.

Saki crumpled to the ground and held her bleeding face, screaming in rage and pain. "Any debt incurred will be paid in full by the joint shinobi alliance. Oh, and be aware that all your indiscretions will be backed up by me. Now leave while the damage to your face can still be fixed."

The woman scrambled away from the two of them and pushed herself out the door, screaming obscenities at the both of them as she went away.

Temari flicked the blood away from the fan and put it inside her dress. She turned to address Mei and crossed her arms over her chest. "So?"

"W-Why did you do that?" Mei stuttered.

"Why?" Temari asked that as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's because you're my friend."

Mei's mask finally cracked. A wellspring of tears flooded her eyes as she rushed forward and wrapped Temari in a big bear hug, crushing the girl's face between her tits. "I'm sorry," Mei blubbered. "I'm sorry."

Temari was taken aback by the woman's new extreme personality flip, but cautiously wrapped her arms around Mei's waist in response. "It- It's fine. You don't have to be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong."

Mei quickly wiped her tears on her dress and held her away by her shoulders. "Did you mean that?"

"Wha- erm… yeah, well, depending on how much you owe to them, we can figure out where the money is going to come from…"

"No," Mei said, interrupting her. "Not that. I could give a shit about that right now. The- The other thing…"

Temari's brow scrunched up, trying to understand her words. And then the realization dawned on her. "Yes, Mei, I'm your friend."

Mei's lips quivered and she had to look away. "I- I'm sorry that I insinuated what I did about your sex life. It was rude of me to pry. I'm sorry for being emotionally distant. I'm sorry for being blunt with my words. I'm… I'm sorry."

Temari patted her on the shoulder. "And… And I shouldn't have gotten like that on the boat. You were just having fun. I wasn't in the mood because… well, because of everything, I guess."

"I…" Mei's face steeled itself and a look of anger took over. "I fucking hate people like that. I hate that I can't hurt them when they do that shit because it'll hurt my image and my image is just about the only goddamn thing running this country. I hate that I have to go to these fucking things. I hate the booze. I hate the food. I hate all of it. I just wanna go home and soak in a bath and eat some chocolate and not have to worry about any of it. And…" Mei wrapped her arms back around Temari, burying her head in the crook of her neck. "And I'm happy you think of me as your friend. And I'm happy you did that but don't do it again."

Temari hugged her back, squeezing the woman to her body and laughing lightly. "No promises on that regard. Especially if they get handy."

Mei pulled away and looked her in the eyes. "I can live with that."

Temari tapped her elbow against Mei's. "Hey, we're family now. Living with each other and not tearing each other's heads off is just about the best we can do, right?"

Family.

Yes, Mei quite liked that.

Omake

Kurotsuchi peeled down the hallway, sword in hand. She turned the corner in a fighting stance, ready to carve up anybody who had hurt either Temari or Mei. When she saw Temari apply the genjutsu and head after Mei, she had stuck around the door just in case things went sideways, which was good, considering she hear the sounds of screams not minutes later.

When she turned the corner, she saw Mei and Temari laughing in a hallway lightly stained with blood. "What happened here?" she asked loudly.

At the sight of her sword, Temari looked at her searchingly. "Nothing much. Where did you get the sword?"

"It's _my_ sword."

"But where did you get it?"

Kurotsuchi sheathed it and got back into her normal posture, seeing as there was no danger. "Every lady has a secret or two."

Temari whistled appreciatively. "To think that your vagina was long enough that you could keep your sword in there… bravo."

"HEY!"

"Not the vagina? Ass then?"

Kurotsuchi pinched the bridge of her nose, turned away, and trundled back to the party. She was never going to win, was she?


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Naruto had experienced frustration before, but never the likes of this. He stared at his own, cruelly smirking reflection and sighed, putting his fists down and crossing his legs. The mirror followed suit, though its demeanor suggested it was doing that under its own free will as a way to mock him. "We've been at this for a few days now. What do you want?"

The mirror shrugged. The only difference between Naruto and the mirror was that its eyes were black and red instead of white and blue. "You know what I want. I'm you."

"You're not me," Naruto was quick say, just like he had said time and time before whenever it made the assertion that they were the same. He blew air out his mouth, toying with various ideas in his mind. "If you're me, then what I want will set me free, right? Once I get that, I'll have control of Kurama's chakra."

If the mirror was at all threatened by the way Naruto spoke, he didn't show it. "Maybe. It depends on what you want."

"Will finding Sasuke set me free?"

"No."

"Will eating ramen set me free?"

"No."

"Will fucking my hot wives set me free?"

"That's a definite no."

Naruto went to list all of his banal enjoyments and casual fancies and was met with the same answer over and over again. He even tried delving into his mind, teasing at what the mirror could want. When that didn't work, he tried to figure it out like a riddle and was about as effective at it as he was with any other riddle: not at all.

He ended their 'conversation' by letting his head fall into his hands as he screamed into his palms. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

"You know what I want. I'm you."

Naruto sighed. "No you're not," he said silently. Fighting it didn't work. In fact, it did just the opposite. He had tried to muscle his way through the night before and all the way up to the evening of the second day when he tried to actually talk to it. It was morning on the third and he was just as close now as he was then. And he was really starting to hate that fucking smirking face.

His eyes narrowed at the mirror. Dark Naruto. "You know what I want?" he asked suddenly. Dark Naruto's eyes perked up and he straightened out his back, putting his hands on his knees and listening with rapt attention. "I want to be strong enough to beat the shit out of you, so I can go back with everyone to Mist and prepare for… for whatever swirly-face has in store for me."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Dark Naruto asked, grinning like a madman about to get exactly what he wanted.

Looking up, concern on his brow, Naruto considered this new response. Was he sure? Pretty damn sure. "Yes," Naruto said as seriously as he could. "That's what I want."

Dark Naruto's grin fell. "Man, I didn't think I acted like this much of a child."

"If that's not what you want, then what is?"

"You know what I want!"

Naruto's lips curled up in a snarl. "That's not what I want!"

"Yes it is!" Dark Naruto stood up explosively, a look of utmost and profound rage glimmering behind his eyes. "You sit there and winge and moan and complain and piss yourself like a little fucking child when all you have to do is admit what you fucking want and you don't fucking do it! Do you enjoy pain? Do you enjoy suffering for others? Do you like playing the martyr?"

"I JUST DON'T WANT ANYONE I LOVE TO BE HURT!"

"And you would rather be hurt in their stead."

Naruto shrugged. He couldn't help but feel he was getting pulled into the way of thinking that Dark Naruto employed and that couldn't end well. "Yes. I would."

Dark Naruto smiled like a demon. "But you can't. Because you're weak." He spoke the work 'weak' like he would a contemptable person. A thing that could only be reviled. "You're weaker than them and you hate yourself for it. No matter how much they love you or tell you how strong you are because of your feelings, it doesn't work because you know how fucking worthless you are when the shit hits the fan."

Naruto's lips pressed into a thin line. His own rage was bubbling up as he listened to his 'other half' speak. "You're wrong," Naruto said.

Dark Naruto found that hilarious. "If I'm wrong, then so are you. And what does that make us? Admit it and set yourself free. You hate yourself because you're weak. Speak it. Put it into words. Make it real. Realer than the both of us put together."

Naruto, sour faced, turned away from Dark Naruto and walked away from the waterfall. His mirror started laughing. A broken sort of laughter that sounded like it could only be produced from an animal or a monster.

Whatever trance he had been put under while talking to Dark Naruto broke and he found himself blinking at a normal wall of falling water. By his side, Fu was cross-legged with a peaceful, nearly sleeping face as she looked toward the water. He hoped she was finding whatever it was that she needed, but he doubted it. Whatever troubles he had faced, she was facing two-fold, it seemed. Or, if not directly more, then it was definitely having a terrible impact on her psyche.

After the first day of no progress, she had secluded herself in a shell and spoke to anyone bitterly and rudely. She didn't want to talk and she didn't want help. She wanted to sulk and hate and be alone. The second day was very worrisome in comparison. After a second fruitless session, it seemed like she rubber banded the opposite direction. She was full of frenetic energy, doing her best to love life and do things and talk and be talked to and laugh and kiss and writhe and entangle. But it was sickly sweet. It was false. An act to make everyone, even her, think she was alright. She wasn't.

She wanted to have sex with him and he didn't want to. It didn't feel right. Like he was taking advantage of her in some strange way. Like he was enabling her. She crashed when she heard that, devolving into a hysterical bout that he couldn't help her from no matter how hard he tried. He just stayed awake with her until she fell asleep. It was the only thing he could do.

And now it was the third day and he didn't know what to expect.

He stood up and turned around, walking away from the waterfall. Almost immediately, he was beset upon by Yugito. She pounced forward, hope in her eyes as she grabbed a hold of his hands, bringing them close to her. "Did it work? Have you conquered your dark half?"

She had taken his early departure as sign of progress. Seeing that light in her eyes only made it worse for him when his expression lowered, saddened. Her smile didn't go away, but her eyes changed. From hopeful to consolatory. "Oh, don't worry," she said softly. "I couldn't get the hang of it for ten years. Don't lose hope just yet."

That last string of words yanked at the fibers surrounding his heart. "Then when do I lose hope?" he asked, a deep unsettling pain in his words.

She didn't have a response other than to frown with him and tuck his chin into the cranny of her neck. "I hate that you're in pain," she said, voice shuddering as she spoke, close to tears as she was. "It… When I look and you and know that you're feeling bad, I can't help but feel bad too. Because I love you. And you being happy is just about the only thing I need in this world. And it hurts so much because I feel like I can't do anything for you. I can't help you. You've helped me so much, you always knew the exact right things to say and I can't say anything back now when you really need it."

They stayed like that for a minute or two, sharing each other's warmth. Eventually, he disengaged and smiled at her, or at least he tried to, and said "Thanks." And he tried to not let tears spring to his eyes when he added "I'm going for a walk. I'll be back later."

00000000

The dinner they all ate that night would have been noted for being tense. That is, it would have if everyone ate together. Naruto didn't return until much later into the night and Fu took the food from the cafeteria into her room, not saying a work to either Yugito, Bee, or the other cloud ninja who had come with under pretenses of security. It left the two remaining Jinchuuriki to eating a solitary meal together; the first they'd had in a very long time.

Bee's personality hadn't changed at all since Yugito last saw him and she was intensely grateful for that. Not even the brink of death kept him from being in high spirits, spitting rhymes out with such frequency that she sometimes wondered if what he said was what he felt or just something needed for a little bit of verbal artistry. She laughed at some of his tricks of gab, but they only helped to alleviate her worry slightly. In truth, through it all, Naruto and Fu weighed heavily on her mind. It was made worse by her seeming incompetency to help them in the slightest.

After one such bout of giggling from his words, Yugito fell silent, her face stone cold. The question had been weighing on her mind for a while, biding its time until she didn't have any other choice than to speak it. "Bee… have you ever been in love?"

The depth of the question coupled with the way she asked it, made him pause in his word smithing so he could consider the question seriously. After a few seconds he said "Can't say I have. I get a hunny every now and then, but that's for the then and now, not for the later, you dig?"

She smiled a little bit, already anticipating that sort of answer. Through all her interactions with him, she never got a good 'deep' conversation out of him. From the outset, he was a simple man with simple thoughts, simple desires, and simple… well, everything. But every now and then, she would get glimpses of the depth within, if that was a good way of saying it. She didn't know if he hid it all with a mask, or just chose not to dwell on it. Most of all, she guessed he just didn't find it very interesting. After all, who cared about all that mumbo jumbo pile of interwoven feelings? It didn't matter to him and he didn't pretend it did. And that, she respected.

Of course, that was going off of the presumption that her most liked interpretation was correct. And it could very well not be. She kept it anyways.

"You lookin for advice for the little ones?" He asked, mouth full of food.

The differences between him and Naruto were both profoundly few and profoundly many. "I don't think you could help with that," she settled on. "And don't call him 'little one'. He's my husband."

Bee showed his palms and nodded. "Guess you're right on that part. Sometimes we have go through things alone, pick a bone with our dreaded foe. Conquer and rise, feel apart from the traumatize, oh yeah."

Though she did smile, she couldn't laugh anymore. The haven that Bee was for her started to lose its luster. Worry was gnawing at her. She wondered what would even happen if she took Matatabi's cloak. Obviously, one could revert back to when they hadn't conquered their self, if Fu was of any indication. Would all that worry and doubt make her unable to use Mata's chakra? She didn't know. And she knew she had to find out, but she also didn't want to.

00000000

Fu sat in the corner of her rickety bed, knees drawn to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. The only source of light was from a beam of moon shining through a small window near the ceiling. She'd been sad, happy, angry, distraught, pensive, jealous, horny, and every and any other emotional feeling or sensation under the sun. Now, she was done. Done with it all.

" **Does that mean you're giving up?"** Chomei asked.

Fu sighed. "I don't know. I just don't want to think about it anymore."

" **There's a lot counting on you…"**

"Oh, don't you worry. I'm aware."

The Dark Fu wasn't as forthcoming with conversation as Dark Naruto was, from what she could discern. Dark Naruto spoke, at least. From what she could tell, Dark Fu was more like Dark Yugito than anything else. When she tried to talk to it, it just… sat there and laughed. Not a dark laugh or a slanted laugh or a bemused, mirthful, joyous laugh. She laughed hysterically. Like she was front seat to a joke of the highest degree.

It didn't do well for her self-esteem. Or, really any aspect of her mental fortitude for that matter. She couldn't make heads or tails of it. She didn't know why she lost control in cloud and she hated herself for it. There weren't any fatalities, but people got hurt.

Naruto got hurt.

"Why is this happening?" she whispered to herself, not for the first time just that hour. She was supposed to be in control. That was her thing. She was a self-encapsulated, self-driving, self-needing force of nature. She was fully aware of her inner self and all its foibles and she accepted that. And from that acceptance, she got her power. But now that was gone and with it, anything she was proud of herself for.

Even if her dark self didn't speak to her, she at least had the benefit of having once perfected the use of Chomei's chakra and also that she had a time frame for when she lost it. In theory, all she had to do was to track any changes in psyche between when she last used it perfectly (the mission to save Bee) and when she lost control in cloud.

But then again, most plans work in theory. Few ever survive implementation.

For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what might have happened between those two periods of time. She felt the same. Maybe not now, but she had confidence in her ability to use Chomei's chakra when she lost control of it. It was infuriating. And her dark self wasn't of any help, just sitting there staring at her while she puzzled it out. Its lung-choking laughter driving her mad, all the while.

"What's wrong with me?" She whispered, pulling her head back until it was touching the cold concrete wall. Selfish? Check. Flighty? Check. Insensitive? Check. There were bad things about her, but there were also good ones. She listened to people. Gave them the benefit of the doubt. Was averse to great displays of negative emotion. She tended to open up more to others. Those were good things.

She was those things and she accepted herself for them. Hell, she didn't even know that that was the reason why she had control of Chomei's chakra in the first place. She was self-taught. It was only after conversing with Yugito that she came to know about controlling tailed beasts' chakras in the more traditional sense.

So what was missing now? She wasn't in denial. At least not consciously. She didn't know what she was doing wrong. She didn't know what could be happening. She thought she had self-reflection in spades. She thought she was a paragon of mental health. And now she wasn't. And that was worrying.

A knock on the door brought her out of another bout of spiraling thought which would inevitably lead to nowhere. She tried to speak to beckon them in, but only a scratchy moan came out of her mouth at first. She'd cried and screamed the last two days enough to wreck her voice. Clearing her voice, Fu whisper-yelled "Come in."

The heavy metal door shuddered and squealed forward, its joints old and rusted. A long red mop of hair pushed its head in cautiously along with a strip of light from the outside. Fu quirked her head to the side. The woman looked familiar, but she couldn't place a name to the face.

"Hey," the woman said, no small amount of trepidation in her word. "Is this a bad time?"

Fu shook her head, not trusting her voice.

The muscles in Karui's legs tensed and untensed. Her body wasn't sure what move to make. "Do you mean, it _is_ a bad time, or…"

Fu shook her head and cleared her throat. "It's okay," she tried to say. Her voice was scratchy and foreign. She sounded like a senior citizen who'd smoked since they were 2.

Karui stepped in and closed the door behind her. It clicked shut and with it, the only source of direct light. She blinked a bit and felt around for the nearest chair, sitting unevenly while her eyes adjusted.

After a few moments of terse silence, Fu squinted at her and said "Uhm… I'm sorry. I don't think we've met…"

Karui squinted at her in return, but ultimately, she looked away. "Yeah, I know. I'm Karui. I… uhm…" she let out a breath of air, eyes turning downwards. She cupped her head in her hands. "I don't even know why I'm here, to be honest."

Fu waited for a couple seconds for her to follow up. "In… what sense? The world? The giant turtle?"

"This room."

"Ah."

Another bout of silence. It was starting to get Fu frustrated. "Look, if you have something to say, then could you… you know, get on with it?"

Karui tapped her index finger against her knee. "In cloud, when you lost control, there was a group of kids trapped in an area between buildings. Their teacher was knocked out and they were scared. We were on our way to help, but before we got to them, Naruto, your husband was already there. He was helping the kids out of the area. And then you launched a giant bijuu bomb and instead of running away from it then and there, he dove back in to save the last little kid in there. He ran out and tossed her over at my friend. Then the ball hit him and I thought he was dead."

With every word out of the woman's mouth, Fu's attitude worsened. Her talking just made all the memories come back to her and with it, all the feelings of self-loathing. She'd almost killed those children.

"I just…" she continued on. "I just wanted to thank him, but he'd not here right now. And he didn't look like he was in the right mood for it either. So, I came in here." Karui wasn't expecting a response and she didn't get one. But she also didn't want to leave on that note either. "He's a hero, you know."

"Could you please leave?"

Fu's voice was quiet and defeated when she requested that. Karui was halfway to obliging her, but something she couldn't quite explain made her stop. "I don't… I don't blame you, if that's what you think."

"Could… please go."

Karui's face didn't fall at the order. "Yugito lost control sometimes too," she said softly. At not hearing an order to leave again, she continued on. "She never killed anyone, thankfully, but she came close on more than one occasion. Nearly ripped the head off of one of her teammates. Doesn't really spar too well anymore because she avoids blows to the head at all costs. And, uh… I wasn't alive when it was happening, but I heard that before Bee, Kumo had a really hard time finding Jinchuuriki for Gyuki. They'd go crazy every now and then and kill a few people. So, uh, hey… at least you're not the worst rampaging giant monster to lay waste to Kumo. Not even by a country mile." Karui laughed lightly at the end of her story, hoping to liven the girl up a little bit. Even just a little would do.

She peeked her head up over her knees. "That doesn't change the fact that I hurt people. I hurt them a lot. And if Naruto wasn't a Jinchuuriki-" Her voice caught on itself, sudden choking sobs wracking her throat. Her eyes were wet with tears again. "If anything happened to him… If I had done anything to him… I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. I lost control when I shouldn't have and because of that, I nearly murdered the person I care most about in this world. And as a cherry on top, I have no idea why. I have no idea if it could happen again. I have no idea how to stop it."

Karui shrugged, a small frown appearing on her face. "I'm not much help in that regard. Bee, he's my teacher. And he never really addressed the topic before. From what I hear, it was as easy as walking for him, though. Yugito… well, you know her story better than I do, I bet."

She did. Fu had come to her with her tail between her legs to ask for advice on how to control the chakra. The woman tried; she really did, but nothing helped her in the slightest. And as terrible as it was to understand… her happiness really irked Fu. It wasn't too long ago that Fu was the one in complete control of everything in her life while Yugito merely pretended she did. The tables flipped with such speed that she was still reeling. "What do I do?" Fu asked helplessly. She wasn't looking for an answer and she wasn't expecting one, but Karui still spoke up.

"I don't know. Being a Jinchuuriki is hard. Like, really hard. But at least you care about other people. That's something that's a lot more rare than people understand."

Fu tilted her head up, eyes half-lidded and flat. "I don't care about other people. I'm selfish. I only care about myself and how I feel."

One of Karui's eyebrows shot up, a look of disbelief evident on her face. "You're joking right? You nearly broke down into tears because you thought you might have hurt a bunch of kids. You're in love with someone. You're torturing yourself over your actions that might have put people in danger. That's just about the least selfish thing I could think of."

Fu's forehead impacted the knees that she had drawn up to her chest. It wasn't like that. She was still selfish. She only cared about herself. The only reason she was around Naruto was because it made her feel good to be around him. The only reason she was friends with all the people she was friends with was because it made her happy. The reason she hated herself because she had almost hurt innocents…

The girl sighed and flopped over on her bed. "I'll pass along the message. Dearest is a hero. Thanks for coming in. Could you please go?"

This time, Karui did acquiesce, opening the door with a squeal of rusted metal on rusted metal, and pushing it back close.

00000000

Naruto walked among the ancient trees, tangled with vines and moss and large insects. He took in a deep breath of salty ocean air and sat down in a small clearing, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. Meditation was a good way to get in contact with Kurama, but that wasn't his intention this time. Now, he was doing something Yugito had softly suggested he do. Clear his mind and get in rhythm with the world. It was something he would normally be averse to doing, but without a better alternative, he didn't really have much of a better idea of what to do. He'd rather bash his skull into a brick wall than talk to Dark Naruto again.

From what Yugito told him, meditation wasn't quite about clearing his mind. Only masters could clear their mind. It was about 'noticing when the mind strayed and correcting'. It was supposed to teach mental discipline. That was something he lacked in some capacity, he supposed. If he were to be honest, it felt like a futile effort, though. As depressing as it sounded to mull over, everything seemed pointless to him at that point. Nothing felt like it would help. And agreeing to Dark Naruto's terms felt to him like making a deal with the devil. There was no winning for him.

Taking in his first deep breath of air, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on his surroundings. The trickle of water, the rustle of leaves, the screeches of animals off in the distance. It was easy to listen, but very difficult not to think. There were different parts of his psyche with different loudnesses that compounded on each other at every distraction. They pulled his mind in every direction it could go in; directions he didn't want it to go. Every direction was a spiral into the worst possible scenario imaginable. It was like his brain was a focal point for whirlpools of depression to launch from. And pulling it back from those spirals was like pushing a boulder up a hill just to watch it roll down every time.

He hated it.

"FUCK!" he shouted suddenly, overwhelmed by the situation he was in. Everything led to shit! And the worst part was that he was surrounded with everything he ever wanted and he still wasn't happy. A loving family and good friends. That's all he wanted and now he had it and he was still sad that was fucking infuriating.

Something flinched in front of him, unsettling the leaves and scaring the dick out of him. In front of him was a giant snake at least as thick as some of the tree trunks in the forest. How hadn't he heard that thing sneak up on him? He pulled out a kunai and got into a fighting position. He didn't have a good track record with giant snakes.

"Don't be scared," it said. "I was just curious about you."

Naruto put his knife away, but he didn't relax just yet. The forest did have quite a shocking amount of giant animals, but he wasn't on good terms with them yet. And also, well, snakes. "Curious about what?"

It uncoiled itself and slithered up a nearby tree, draping itself across the huge boughs. Its coloration was that of an anaconda's and its voice was difficult to discern whether it was feminine or masculine. "About why a human would be closing its eyes in the middle of a dark and dangerous forest."

"I was… meditating," he said unsurely. "I didn't think anything would sneak up on me."

"I wasn't making an effort to. You were just lost in thought, I guess."

"Guess so."

When the snake didn't get anything more from Naruto, it tilted its head and stared at him questioningly. Rather than slitted, its eyes were round and surprisingly human-looking. He couldn't tell whether that made him feel more or less on-edge. It chuckled a little bit. "What's got your goat? If you don't me asking."

Naruto sat back down, grabbing his thighs. "It's a bit of a long story. And I don't think it would make much sense if I told it to you anyway."

It hummed a little bit and relaxed back on the tree. "Indulge me some, would you? This island is all territory disputes and pissing contests."

He looked at the ground in front of him, trying to figure out a way to word the situation he was in. "I… I guess… I'm sad and don't have any motivation and I don't know why because I have everything I wanted in life."

The snake considered his words and nodded along. "Depressed then, huh?"

"Yeah," he sighed out. "Depressed."

"What do you have that you wanted?"

He pursed his lips. "Friends, family, people I love and who love me back. Those kinds of things."

The snake considered his words again. "Well, what do you do?"

Naruto looked up at it. "What do you mean?"

"Occupation, hobby, trade… what do you do?"

"I'm a ninja."

"A strong one?"

"Y-" he stuttered. He was strong. That much he was sure of. It was just that he wasn't strong enough. "Yes. I'm strong. I just… I need to be stronger. And I can't get to the next level without making a deal with the devil."

"That sounds ominous."

"It's not the actual devil," he said softly. "It's like… I don't know what it's like. It's the, uhh… the dark part of me, I guess. It wants me to… to admit that I hate myself because I'm weaker than the ones I love and that I feel like I can't protect them at all."

"Does it speak the truth?"

He shook his head furiously. "Of course not. I love them. I love them more than anything."

"But it's you."

"It's not me. It's everything I hate."

It coiled around the tree and went back to the ground below, slithering in and out of the clearing. "Everything you hate about you is still you."

Without a word more, it made its way out the area, leaving Naruto on his own.

00000000

It was another tense dinner for Yugito. The cafeteria was empty except for her, Naruto and Fu. They were grinding away at their meals in silence, refusing to meet eyes with anyone at the table. Her heart ached for them; it really did. There was something about seeing someone who you loved in pain while not being able to anything that ate away at that person. Somewhere, she knew that the best thing she could do for the both of them was to just be there for them and offer encouragement. It hadn't been that long, less than a week for all three, but every second felt like forever when your significant other (others, in this case) was chronically sad.

"So, uhm," Yugito paused to gulp hard. She'd been pondering whether or not to bring up any mentions of progress. Her body made that decision for her. "Any… insights?"

"I…" Naruto started immediately before considering whether or not it was actually a good idea to divulge what was on his mind. "I talked to a giant snake," he settled on.

Yugito blinked. That wasn't quite an answer she was thinking she'd get. "A… A snake?"

He nodded. "Giant one."

"…What did it have to say, if you don't mind me asking?"

He chewed his food slowly, sifting through his memories to try and summarize their encounter. "I don't know," he said. "Asked me about my problems and told me that I was shit."

Yugito looked back down to her food. "That… can't be good for your mental outlook," she said with a slight upward tick in cadence, hoping to draw some laughter out of him.

She didn't get any. He hummed an affirmative and went back to his food.

The clanging of metal on metal brought their attention to Fu, who had dropped her fork on the table. Her face was distraught and she looked to be near tears. "I…" she started unevenly. Her voice was still scratchy from the past couple of days, but it was at least better than last night. She looked up and saw that both Naruto and Yugito were looking at her with rapt attention. "I'm selfish," she said with such a heavy shake in her voice that both thought they misheard her.

"I'm selfish," she continued on. "I've already told you, Naruto, but I haven't told you, Yugito. That's where my power came from, originally, my power to control Chomei's chakra. Rather than looking to others to validate me, I only looked inward. I loved myself and that was enough for me to use the power. And it was real, too. I filled up the hole in my heart all by myself. But now… I'm not sure if the hole got bigger or I just got smaller, because it's not enough anymore. And more to the point, it's not true. I mean, I still love myself; I don't think that changed. But now… now I love you two. The both of you. Same goes for Kurotsuchi and Temari and Mei. Hell, same goes for Sakura and maybe even Kakashi and Jiraiya and Ai and Onoki and Shibuki. I love them all. But that means I can't be selfish anymore. I care about people now. I… I hurt people back in cloud. I hurt," her voice closed with a sob and she had to take a second to regain use of her voice. "I hurt you, Naruto. If you weren't there, I would have killed children. But you were there and you saved them, but I still hurt you." She clutched at the fabric above her heart. "And that knowledge that I hurt someone I love more than I love myself just tears me apart. It's hard to forgive myself even if you have."

Tears began to spill from the girl's eyes like miniature waterfalls. Yugito quickly got out of her seat so she could sit next to the girl and wrapped her arms around her smaller frame. She rested her cheek on the top of her head and held her close. Naruto scooted closer and wrapped an arm around her waist as well, joining Yugito.

"I don't think I'm selfish anymore," the girl said helplessly. "I think I care too much about people. I'm not sure if that's good or bad anymore. But I know it's true. Dark Fu would only laugh and laugh at me when I talked to her. Nothing to say. Like I was just a big joke. And in a way, I was. The answer was right in front of me, but I just had to accept it."

As she spoke, insectoid wings formed from her back and chitinous purple material traveled up her body, eventually covering her skin in armor. "I'm back," she said, looking up at the ceiling with a bright smile on her tear-stained face. "I'm back.

00000000

"So?" It asked as a huge, toothy smile reaching across its face from ear to ear. "Anything you want to say to me?"

Naruto looked down at his hands splayed on either leg. He was sitting down, hunched over, nothing much on his mind to say and nothing much in his eyes to denote any passion or motivation. He looked dead to the world. He hadn't slept the night before and forewent eating breakfast the next day. All around him, everything was gray. That's the way the world looked. That's the way the world had looked the past week or so. He hadn't wanted to do anything. He just… moved with the tide of the world, doing what others had told him to do.

It was pathetic.

He was aware of it. He was aware others were aware of it. He didn't like it. He knew others didn't like it. It was hurting Yugito and it was hurting Fu and he wanted to find something to make things different but he didn't know how to do anything to make it work. He could change, or he could stay the same. Both frightened him beyond belief.

Change.

Change?

He was a way he didn't want to be, but what was the alternative? What _did_ he want to be? He could be different, but what would he be after he changed? Strong? Kind? Smart? Charismatic? Nothing called to him.

"Or… you could just be you?" Dark Naruto said seductively. It made the situation sound so simple. He wanted to be different, didn't he?

Didn't he?

He liked color. He liked how the glint of the sun reflected off of Yugito's hair. That was good. He liked it better when she smiled while doing it. If she was doing it to him, even better. He liked the sound of Fu's laughter becoming louder or quieter as she zoomed about. He liked hearing Mei and Kurotsuchi bicker and snicker. He liked kissing Temari.

He liked those things and he wanted to experience them more. He liked the color, the sound, the taste.

And Fu cut both her arms off, sacrificing them so that she could survive. Yugito had her limbs pierced by iron tendrils. Gaara died. Mei and all the other kage stayed behind so that he could he could move forward and was knocked out immediately. He was useless at every juncture.

He hated those things and he wanted them to be different. But they couldn't be different. They were in the past. They were fact. They couldn't be changed. And he could promise himself that it wouldn't be the same in the future, but he didn't know that and he hated it.

"I hate myself because I'm weaker than them," he murmured. "They're stronger than me and I can't protect them. And I feel weak and useless because of that."

Dark Naruto's smile fell away like broken glass from a window. Its face went neutral and it let out a deep breath.

"Jiraiya gave me three pieces of advice a bit ago in rock. You remember them, don't you? Of course you do. You're me. We're the same," Dark Naruto took a breath to interrupt, but Naruto didn't let him the time. "One: don't lie to the ones you love. Two: Life's not fucking fair. Three: life's what you make of it. I kinda ignored him and I think I'm suffering for it. I've lied to myself. I lied to you and I shouldn't have done that. It gave you power that you shouldn't have. Life's not fair and I pretended like it should have been. And I pigeon-holed myself into one area and failed in that area and when I failed, I failed in everything and when I failed in everything, I lost myself."

Dark Naruto's eyes went half-lidded and he couldn't meet Naruto's gaze anymore. The original walked up to it and rested a hand on its shoulder. He was smiling. It was a sort of melancholy smile; happy, but also sad. He couldn't figure out why. It was a bit odd knowing that Dark Naruto was going to go away, even if he never was going to vanish completely. He just wasn't going to be pushed away anymore.

And then he wasn't there anymore. Naruto was looking at a waterfall, crashing down into a small pond rolling underneath his feet. He turned around and Fu and Yugito were standing there, smiling at him. And he smiled back and them and laughed. And they smiled back and laughed too, jumping forward to cross the distance and wrap him in a big hug.

And he wasn't sad anymore.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Naruto hopped up and down while looking in the mirror of the bathroom. The orange-yellow flames licking his body flickered with him. Touching his chest, he felt solid, but he was also so light that it was almost impossible to come to grips with. Using that chakra, he was so strong, so fast, so much better than he had ever felt in his life. Thinking back on it, that's how it always felt when using Kurama's power. It was just that he didn't have to worry about the all-encompassing negative emotion that went along with it.

"What are you doing?" Yugito asked, quite bemused by the sight in front of her. Her platinum locks were tussed and disorderly and there was already a yawn growing on her lips. All around her was after-the-fact glow. She was also wearing her birthday suit.

"This isn't normal, right?" Naruto asked, unable to keep from smiling. "Yours and Fu's chakra cloaks look like your tailed beasts' while mine looks… weird."

Yugito walked into the bathroom and draped her arms around his neck, pushing herself up on her toes so she could rest her chin on his head. "Guess so. But it fits you."

"Are you calling me weird?"

"You have five wives."

"There's a difference between being weird and being in a weird situation."

She slid her head down until her chin was on his shoulder and her mouth less than an inch from his ear. "Weird situations? Like how there's a gorgeous naked woman hugging you from behind and you're not ravaging her right now? No, you're totally normal."

He switched around suddenly, hugging her to his body and crashing his lips onto hers. They were so soft and warm and wet and full of love and want. Just the act of kissing her was already so great. He broke their contact so he could stare into her eyes. "Someone's getting a bit arrogant, aren't they?"

She ghosted his cheeks with the tips of her fingers. "I learn from the best."

He slapped her ass hard enough for the sound to resonate outside of the room. "And don't you dare forget it," he replied huskily.

Yugito playfully glowered at him, detaching and walking back into the bedroom that the bathroom was connected to. It was the only area in the entire compound that had somewhat complete furnishings and they were making good use of it on their way back to the hidden mist. "As much as I enjoy our time together," she said the word 'together' with a licentious lilt. "Try not to bother others, would you?"

Naruto followed her back into the room, where she was getting her clothes from the ground where they had been scattered and leaned on the frame. "How am I bothering others?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out the sound of an ass getting slapped, especially with the force you put into it." She stood up to look at him seriously. "As much as I put up a steely front for myself for years and years, it still made my heart pang with loneliness whenever I saw couples being overly showy in front of me. All else equal, I don't want to do the same to others."

One of his eyebrows quirked up. "Says the woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs last night. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that sound either."

"I wasn't screaming," she said dismissively as she slid her pants over her shapely ass, which Naruto couldn't help but to stare longingly at. It was so well formed, after all.

"You kind of were," Fu chimed in, muffled by the pillow resting over her head. "At least for the first part… and also the middle part… come to think of it, the last part was pretty loud too."

As she was finishing putting her shirt on, Yugito crossed her arms over her chest and looked back at Fu as if she was telling a bold lie. "I was in complete control of my voice. It barely ever rose above casual speech levels in terms of loudness."

Naruto and Fu shared a look and did their best not to burst out in laughter, something that Yugito took notice of. "What?" she asked, already on the defensive.

Fu was covering her mouth to stifle laughter whereas Naruto was openly chuckling. "I'm not sure if you're not remembering right or if you're just obfuscating, but you were very, very loud last night."

"I was not," Yugito snapped, face growing red. Perhaps she had, at times, raised her pitch slightly when the good parts came, but surely that was to be expected? And it was only slightly; there was no way that it could have been noticed by others outside the room.

"It's two against one here," Fu said, grinning like a wild woman. "You know, it's okay that you're a screamer. Especially since this is, like, what? The _second_ time _ever_ you've had sex. Probably the first time you've had good sex. Looked like you were 'tensing up' every ten seconds."

While Yugito did have to admit that last night was probably one of the best nights of her life, full to the brim of never-ending pleasure and fulfillment and a font of writhing love, she knew that she was in control through it all. She didn't drink. She didn't get high. She didn't seek out things that altered her state of mind because she put great stock maintaining a healthy and calm mental state without a speck of mindless overindulgence. It went without saying that she didn't lose herself to the pleasure last night.

"I do have to admit," Fu said, leaning back against the headboard completely exposed. "You were pretty good at the, uh, 'not straight' part of sex. You sure you haven't had any girlfriends?"

Yugito looked between her and Naruto. "I don't… remember really, err, 'engaging' with you all that much…"

Her eyes went wild with fury.

'MATATABI!' She mentally shouted, a look of rage on her face.

" **Don't blame me for your lapses in memory, kitten,"** Matatabi drawled out amusedly. **"She speaks the truth though. For all the times I accused you of being secretly a lesbian and you fervently denying me every time I asked, you were quite proactive with the girl."**

Yugito felt her skin crawl a little bit. 'Please don't call her a girl. Especially considering I, apparently, had proactive sex with her last night.'

Naruto snapped his fingers in front of her, hoping to draw her from her daze. Her face had gone through a hilarious multitude of different expressions during the few seconds she had lost focus. "Earth to cat-woman."

Her focus snapped back on and she looked from Fu to Naruto a couple of times, doing her best to extrapolate the situation. She shook her head and walked to the door, leaning in to kiss Naruto on the cheek on her way out. "It was a really good night for me," she said, drawn away from any embarrassment they were expecting her to feel. "I love you. You too Fu. You can continue with your love-making. I'm getting breakfast."

And with nary a word edgewise, the door closed behind her, leaving Naruto and Fu alone to stare after her. "I'm not crazy, right?" Naruto asked.

"If you're crazy, then so am I. But there's no way she can't remember that. What, does she have selective amnesia?"

He shrugged. "Maybe she just got lost in it last night? It was similar for you for our first time, right?"

Fu played around with the idea in her head for a few seconds. "I don't know, maybe?"

Naruto clicked his tongue and looked at the closed door for a few seconds, pondering whether to after her or not.

But then he looked at Fu in her state of no dress and decided to make good on Yugito's suggestion of love-making.

00000000

Yugito sat down at the table with a muted clatter. She was tired and a little bit frazzled from the night before, so her motor functions were slightly off the mark, but she didn't think anyone noticed. She chose the table that Bee and his apprentices were sitting at, hoping to inform them more personally of the good news that transpired yesterday. It had been a bit of a whirlwind for all three Jinchuuriki, so only the barest of minimums was divulged. Now, however, she could take her time and fill in the details herself and catch up with the three of them.

Bee was lost in his writing and Omoi and Karui glanced at her for half a second each before returning to their meals. Somewhat perplexed by their cold response, Yugito stalled for half a second before greeting them. "Good morning," she said, nodding to each of them.

The two glanced up again and nodded at her, though they couldn't retain eye contact for long. Omoi managed a "morning" in return and Karui said nothing.

Yugito looked down at her food, tapping her fork against her tray. "D-Did you guys… sleep alright?" she was looking for small talk and probing for something that might be the matter with them at the same time. In the past they at the very least had a professional relationship with each other. She hadn't done anything to invoke their ire, had she?

They shared a knowing and went back to their food. "I don't think anyone slept well," Karui muttered right before getting nudged hard by Omoi.

Yugito waited for an explanation but no explanation came. "Was there… turbulence?"

The party _could_ take a boat away from the turtle island and arrive at mist sooner, but after calculations taking into consideration of wind and currents, it would only be by a few hours. They all elected to stay on the turtle and make course for hidden mist. And the turtle hit choppy waters every now and then.

"Turbulence? Guess you could call it that," Karui muttered once again and, once again, getting a hard nudge from Omoi.

"Okay," Yugito said, setting her unused fork to the table with a resounding clang. "What did I do to you two? Why are you acting that way?"

The sudden clang seemed to rouse Bee from his state of writing the sickest of rhymes and brought his attention to Yugito. He started smiling ear to ear and slapped her on the back a few times. "Hey, Yugito, congratulations."

She looked at him oddly, feeling her heart start to go cold. "Congratulations on what?"

"Yo yo yo, little queen cat; getting pounced on in the sack; feeling the world go slack; and it all goes black. Whoa whoa whoa."

Yugito blinked, blood starting to rise to her cheeks. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, voice cracking slightly at the end.

"It means that everyone heard you last night," Karui blurted out.

Looking at her face, Yugito realized that there was the faintest of red tinges to the girl's skin. They'd both been blushing up a storm the entire time she had been sitting there. She just hadn't realized it since their skin was darker. "L-Like… You mean…"

Bee hummed appreciatively. "Sounded like you were having a real good time."

Her face was starting to turn an interesting shade of red. "D-Did we keep anyone up-"

"YES," Karui said, just interrupting the last part. "I was up for like three hours."

"Four," Omoi contributed.

"And I heard about it in the morning," Bee said, still grinning ear to ear. It made sense. He could sleep through the world ending

Yugito put her face in her hands and leaned on the table. "But I thought I was being so quiet."

"How could you think that?" Omoi asked.

"You were screaming as loud as you could," Karui added.

"I'm just happy you finally got fucked," Bee said.

She'd usually be angry at Bee's lewd comment, but couldn't find it in her to get the moral high ground on him. What was good for her, in that it spared her of further embarrassment, was that sounds of light moaning began to penetrate into the cafeteria even over the low din of morning conversation, leaving Yugito wide-eyed and staring at the hallway she had come from in leaving her room. "Does this place magnify the sound?" she whisper-yelled.

"The walls are just super thin," Karui said, cupping her head in her palm, drooping her eyes slightly. Thanks to Yugito, she wasn't the only one who hadn't slept last night.

00000000

Just as the sex was starting to hit the crescendo for Naruto and Fu, the door slammed open with Yugito in the doorway, red-faced and full of shame. "Everyone can hear you two," she said gravely.

They looked at her, still entwined and shiny with the slick of sweat on them. Naruto took a bit to catch his breath and process the information. "…Wait, if they could hear us when we're actually being quiet, then last night…"

Yugito held up a hand. "Just… no more sex, okay?"

Naruto and Fu started laughing hysterically.

00000000

Naruto landed feet first in the soft dune of sand, sending up a plume that got carried away by the wind. It was a beautiful day in the land hidden in mist and he was having a good time. When they weren't covered in rolling clouds of fog and mist, the beaches were downright gorgeous. Kurotsuchi was making a large sand castle, aided by her nature release. Fu was buzzing around the ocean surf, looking for pods of dolphins she could have fun with while Temari, Yugito, and Mei were further up the coast protected by an umbrella.

He looked to the sky and let a big smile cover his face. It was shaping up to be one of the best days he'd had in a while. Farther away, out of his earshot, was a less wholesome conversation.

"So how big is he anyway?" Mei asked, the most recent question in a line of grilling. Each one was more searching than the last, not that Yugito ever made a great effort to dodge them.

"What is up with you people and the length of his penis?" Yugito asked, genuinely perplexed. "Even if it was small, we could work around that. It's not a deal breaker."

"So it's not small?" Mei asked with an impetuous smirk.

Yugito sighed into her palm. "I didn't say it was big either."

"It's pretty big," Temari said with a smug smirk.

"You don't have a frame of reference," Yugito bit back.

"Neither do you."

"I've sex before."

"Once. That's not a sample size I can trust."

"Do you need a randomized double-blind trial too?"

"It would help."

Yugito clicked her tongue and laid back against a dune of sand, letting the sun rays warm her skin. She'd always wanted to get a tan and with the world almost at peace, it was as good a time as any. Sunglasses, bathing suit, inane chatter with her female friends (and sister wives, but that was a small detail). She felt like a damn civilian and damn if it didn't feel good. She only wished she would come out on top when talking with Temari more often. In the back of her mind, she wondered if that was how Naruto always felt when around her.

"What about you, Mei," Temari continued on. "What's the biggest you've taken?"

The kage in question took a moment to think. "Nothing that stands out if I think about it. There were a couple that were uncomfortable, so it wasn't a really good time. It's more about the man than the equipment by my approximation."

Yugito perked up. "You never answered my first question: why are you so interested in this?"

Temari put her hands behind her head and crossed one leg over the other. "I'm an adolescent girl in the prime of my sexual awakening. It's to be expected, no?"

"For some," Yugito said back, snidely, in reference to her stunted adolescence.

Temari shrugged. "It's to be expected for those forced into a marriage with four other women. Better?"

"You came around," Mei reminded her.

Temari nodded. "And I'm very glad I did," she said as she looked across the sands at her lover as he splashed and ran through the water, trying to kick up a splash large enough to glance across Fu as she routinely swept down. He was laughing and Fu was too. It made her heart flutter just looking at him, happy as all hell. It had been horrible for her to see him depressed. Knowing that it only lasted a few days did mitigate it, though. Fu too, for that matter.

Speaking of…

"Yugito," Temari said. Her voice had lost its playfulness.

The two tailed Jinchuuriki, lowered her sunglasses and looked in the girl's direction. "Yes?"

"Thanks for taking care of Naruto and Fu," she said with an unexpected waver in her voice. From across the beach, he noticed them looking at him and he waved back, beaming like a bright light in a dark room.

Yugito brought her sunglasses back up and turned back to the ocean. "Don't thank me for that," she said softly. "I didn't do it for you. And I didn't do it for me."

"But you still did it. And I'm grateful for that."

"You would've done the same."

"Correct," she said, nodding. "I would have. But I wasn't there. You were."

"You look out for him too."

Mei snickered at the two of them as they spoke. "Listen to you two. We don't have to be thanked and praised for looking out for each other. It's what we do. We're family, aren't we?"

The two of them had to think about that for a few seconds. "I don't know," Yugito said. "I've never had a family before. Is this what it feels like?"

Temari shrugged. "Don't look at me. My family was just about as fucked as one could get."

"I didn't have one either," Mei said, standing up to walk over to the water with Naruto and Fu. "But I don't think it really matters. We're together now, and that's all that really matters."

With Mei having vacated their sunning spot, only Temari and Yugito remained in a somewhat terse, awkward silence.

Temari looked across at the sunning cat woman, a small smirk coming to her lips. "He _is_ pretty big though."

"Oh, it's huge."

"I needed more than one ruler to measure it."

"You used a ruler? Amateur."

"What did you use?"

"My own body. And even then, if I was any shorter, I would have had to call Fu over. One Yugito and a tenth of Fu, that's how big he is."

"Some might call that well-endowed."

"I call it an average Saturday over in cloud."

Temari and Yugito burst out laughing over their ridiculous exchange.

Family, huh? That was a good thing to have.

00000000

"Are you sure that's a sand castle?" Naruto asked Kurotsuchi as she blasted another round of quicklime into her work. It was taller than her and wider than a shack already, and it didn't look to be even close to being done yet either.

"What would you call it?" She asked back. She was wearing a sports bra and spats, the only thing she had even remotely sea-worthy. As she was from a land of scraggy mountains, there was a very small amount of places to go to get recreationally wet, and even smaller reasons to spend money on high-priced swimsuits. Seriously, she could buy ten swimsuits in the land of water for the price of a bikini top in hidden rock. It was ridiculous.

"Well…" he said, appraising the 'sand castle' for what it was. It was abstract, that was for sure, lacking any actual physical characteristics that looked like anything he had seen before. "It's more like a sculpture," he decided on. "Or even a statue."

She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step back to appraise it as well. "It's not like I was specifically going for a castle anyway, so I guess that's pretty accurate."

"Anything I can do to help make it come into reality?"

She bit the side of her cheek in thought for a few seconds. "Not much. Just stand there and look pretty, like you always do."

He put his hands on his hips out of mock indignation. "I do more than look pretty sometimes."

"And I didn't say you didn't," she said before dousing the sculpture in a blast of water, making the quicklime dust expand and harden. "Just said that you're usually pretty when you're doing it."

He put his hands behind his back and pranced around a little bit. "Aw, you flirt. You know exactly how to make my heart thump, don't you?"

She crossed her arms behind her back and shot back a beaming grin, much like the one he normally wore. "You know, if you play your cards just right, I might even consider bringing you back to my place tonight. Show you what it's like to be with a _real_ woman."

"Aw, shucks," he said, batting his pretty boy eyelashes at her. "Though it sounds so very tempting, I must admit, I'm married."

Kurotsuchi barked out a burst of laughter. "Yeah, you are. To me."

He nodded his head a little bit while he thought out that piece of logic. "That point you made right there… it's not wrong."

"Yeah…" she said, turning her focus back to the sculpture she'd been spending the better part of an hour on already. "But it's not quite right either."

Naruto's exuberance faltered slightly. There was something being left unsaid by the two of them and they both knew it somewhere in their beings. 'How do you feel about me?' It was very important and yet still not the most important, so it went unsaid. But it should be said and Naruto knew that. He could ask directly and hopefully get a direct answer. That was his first instinct to do, but something was holding him back from doing it.

Because if she loved him and she spoke it and she made it real, he couldn't pretend they were just friendly anymore. He couldn't face her the way he'd been facing her before. And how did he feel about her anyways?

The worst part of the scenario was that he couldn't puzzle out her feelings for him just by their interactions. What was the level of intensity? They were ambiguous and amorphous. He wanted to just stand still, look her in the eyes, and ask her dead on.

" **So why don't you?"**

At least the voice wasn't booming and snarling and vicious. That was a plus. The fact that it wasn't making a bad point was making him wish that it was, in fact, booming and snarling and vicious. It would've been easier to ignore if it was.

'Because… I like being friends with her. And after I ask her that, the situation can go anywhere from there.'

Kurama considered that for a moment or two. Interaction wasn't quite his forte and yet he knew rotten reasoning when he saw it. Well, maybe not rotten. Perhaps it was just too human.

" **If she does love you, then talking to you like she is, is just causing her pain."**

Naruto made a face and looked to the side, towards the surf and where Fu and Mei were playing. 'How the hell…'

" **Don't forget I see everything you do. More, probably. Your interactions are too easy to understand. Knowing what to do after is a matter of course."**

'I know what I should do, but doing it's harder that you think.'

Kurama knew that he didn't know how to respond to that. So he didn't. He just watched some more and paid extra attention, exactly what he'd been doing lately.

Naruto turned back to look at Kurotsuchi. She'd been using more chakra and was somewhat exerted because of it. A small sheen of sweat glistened off her skin, tracing the lines on her body where the toned muscle was visible. She swept her hair back over her scalp and put her hands on her knees, breathing slightly harder and staring at the sculpture in front of her intently. As she bent over, the material around her legs stretched a little bit, accentuating her rear quite nicely. A breeze swept over both of them, chilling the moisture on their skin. Her nipples perked up underneath her sports bra.

Naruto looked away, a blush starting to stain his cheeks and blood rushing to familiar places. It was weird how such a normal occurrence could look so erotic to him.

"You okay?" she asked, noticing his new, somewhat uncomfortable state. Her lips were parted a little bit and hadn't seemed to have noticed the fact that her nipples were pointing through the fabric. A sudden urge to perform the most carnal and indulgent actions coursed through him for a fraction of a second.

Yup. He was attracted to her. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He needed to talk to Temari, Fu, and Yugito. He needed to… what did he need to do? He liked being friends. But his imagination was sending him different messages. What did he want more? And more importantly, how did she feel?

He nodded after a lengthened pause. "Yeah, I'm good," he said. The blond tried to say something more, but his words got caught in his throat.

She noticed that and raised and eyebrow, putting her hands on her hips and shifting her weight to her back foot. "You sure about that?"

What did she sound like? Playful? Flirtative? It was hard to tell. And Naruto wasn't in the rightest of minds to be trying to figure it out. "Do you like me?" he asked. He didn't cringe or berate himself afterwards. He needed to know. It wouldn't be good at all if they went on and he didn't know. Clarity was an odd thing and came at odd times. He never thought it could happen when he was at half-chub.

A huff of air escaped her lips. "Yeah." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course I do."

He smiled a little bit and brought a hand to the back of his head, chuckling a little bit. "Yeah, yeah. It uhh… well, I don't know. Things've been happening too quickly and… I haven't really been talking to you that much, so I just…"

"Hey," she interrupted his rambling with ease. "We're friends, right? You were feeling bad and… well, I knew the most I could do was to be there for you. Shame I couldn't get on the turtle, but everything shaked out, right? You got a handle of your stuff, got some cool glowey powers, a new sexual partner-"

"It's not…" He interrupted. He felt a little bit defensive on that. But it wasn't obvious how serious she was either. "It's not just that…" Naruto finished lamely.

A knowing smile was all she had to give him, but capped it off with "You don't have to put up any walls around me. You should know that."

And he did know that. And he desperately wanted that. He wanted a good friend to laugh and jest with. But he also wanted to wile the hours away with her, tangling in a sexual embrace. God, what _did_ he want from her?

00000000

Naruto let out a deep breath from the bottom of his stomach and took another swig from the jar of milk by his side. The night was beautiful, especially so from his position on the deck of a wooden lodge facing the sea. The wood was cool underneath his legs and the wind would pick up every now and then, rustling the leaves in the tree and the hair on his head. The stars were out in full view, so much so that he could see the splotch of stars making up the galaxy in the sky. He couldn't see the moon; it was either behind him or covered by the planet. There was an eternal sound of the water splashing on the sand out in the distance.

His lungs were still stinging from use and his muscles were loose and well-used. If after-glows were visible, he'd be beaming.

And yet, he couldn't sleep. Not even after an hour of laying with Yugito and Fu and Temari, all of whom were exceptionally good sleeping partners. Something was keeping him up, so he grabbed some cold milk and sat on the deck.

He could sense the footsteps coming up behind him, but he already knew who they were even without seeing the owner of them. He knew who they were instinctually, somehow, even though he hadn't spent all that much time with them. It was odd how intimate he was with them; all of them in fact.

Mei sat down next to him with her legs crossed, leaning back on her hands to look at the same view he was. "It was the people I was fighting for, not the scenery," she said first, her voice as soft as the wind through a bird's feathers. "But the scenery really helped," she said with a slight laugh towards the end.

He nodded. "I like it."

She leaned over and nudged his elbow with her, a knowing smile stretching her lips. "Long day, huh? Even longer night, by the sounds of it."

He grinned a little bit and shrugged. "I like it," he repeated.

"Of course you do, you lady killer."

"I don't know about that," he said, shaking his head. He let out another long breath of air. "I have no idea how I ended up here. And I don't know if it's going to last."

Mei closed her eyes and let in a deep breath of the salty air. "I think it will," she decided on. "If anyone here led even a little bit of a normal life, there wouldn't be a snowball's chance in hell that this could continue on realistically. But… you all love each other. I think it'll work out."

He puckered his lips a little bit, squinting his eyes off in the horizon. "And… how do you… you know, feel about me?"

"You're probably one of the best men I know," she said without missing a beat. "Err… boy? Right now, you're in the area between those two, but it doesn't change my sentiment."

Naruto laughed a little bit, disbelief evident in the air. "Really? What's so good about me?"

"It would easier to count your negative attributes than to count your positive ones, if that helps. Positive, unyielding, kind, strong, altruistic, funny – though I'm not quite a fan of your humor, I know others are –, you always give people another chance, you always look for a solution to a problem that involves the least amount of people getting hurt…"

"But… that's just what people are supposed to do, isn't it?" Naruto asked, interrupting.

Mei's smile turned slightly morose. "And you always see the world for how it should be rather than how it is. Just don't sell yourself short, howabout?"

"Okay," he said, nodding. "I get it. I'm pretty cool... Today was a good day, wasn't it?"

Mei giggled. "Would it be sad if I said it was probably the best day I've had in my life?"

"Eh, just goes to show how great it was."

The Mizukage nodded and let her eyes glaze over slightly. "I'm going to miss this."

"We'll go back to it," Naruto said resolutely. "Once everything's all said and done, we'll come back here every vacation we can get and have fun just like today."

Mei looked over to him to make eye contact. It was hard to read her face. It was hard to read her eyes. "Careful with your promises. I just might believe them."

Naruto shot a beaming smile at her. "What kind of person do you take me for? I don't go back on my promises."

Mei turned back to the rolling surf and the galaxy of stars. "Jiraiya's coming for you tomorrow, right? Sage training?"

Naruto nodded. "That's right. Hopefully I'll be done and join the rest of everyone in the land of iron before the talks start. Then we'll kick swirly-face's ass, bring peace to the world, and everyone will be happy for the first time in a very long time."

"And I thought I sounded idealistic."

"You gotta have something, right?"

Acting a bit impetuously, Mei sidled up to his side and rested her head on his. They sat there for a time, resting and taking in the scenery


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Oh how Kurotsuchi dreamed of the plushest of sofas and the most relaxing of days in the future. A future where she wasn't constantly walking along a cart on to a new destination just for someone with a loud voice to announce the fact that she was married to a dude along with four other chicks. That future was going to be a good future indeed for her.

Granted, the more she got to know the other chicks, the more she realized they weren't that bad. Hell, compared to the people she interacted with as 'friends', they were all downright saints. And the dude wasn't the worst. His dad killed her mom, but the less thought about that the better.

The walking along the cart to a new destination every week or so, however… That would be better off done with as soon as possible. She was just glad there was only one more to go. What made her not so glad was how she had to trudge through trenches of snow to get there. For all the talk of how important she was to the stability of the world, she sure did feel like she got the short end of the stick at times.

A flair of bright blue hellfire lit up the road in front of her for a second or two and a small rush of newly melted water flowed past her boots shortly after. Yugito stood in front of them all, her arms cloaked in the very same hellfire with her brow furrowed and set ahead to their destination. At least there was a woman who specialized in throwing up gouts of fire in charge of shoveling snow out of the way for them.

She was an interesting case study, to say the least. She used to be a hard ass with a haughty, better-than-thou way of speaking. Now, she was quiet, a little bit removed, and kind, for the most part. The woman seemed to have found her peace, a sort of equilibrium to go back to whenever parts of her strayed too far from it. And finding that peace seemed to have been correlated with her relationship towards a certain blond who she had some relation with.

Kurotsuchi took a shuddering breath and hugged the scarf closer to her neck. The only way she knew the sun was setting was because the overcast clouds were losing their grayness to a darker grayness. Huge, sky-piercing mountains popped out of the white fields every now and then. And if she looked very closely, she could see bright points of light glinting out of the windows of a house almost buried in the snow. It was perhaps a cozy land to some, but hardy and bone-chilling to others.

She just wanted to be back in hidden stone. Sure, there weren't as many entertaining things to do there than, say, hidden leaf, but it was homey. There were walls in the form of giant mountains protecting her. There were nice landscapes to walk through. Enemies to hate… Well, fewer enemies to hate nowadays as it were. But still. It was a simple place and a part of her really wanted to get back to it.

A sudden squeal of excited delight grew louder as it fell from the sky and stopped just as suddenly when it impacted a snow pile next to her. Kurotsuchi didn't have to look over to know that Fu had divebombed the drift in order to make a snow angel. She had always assumed angles' wings to be of the feathered variety, but who knows? There might be one or two out there with insectoid wings. Fu carefully extricated herself from the imprint on the snow and took a few steps back to appreciate her work.

"You know, there could have been a sharp icicle where you landed," Kurotsuchi said.

Fu waved her off. "I woulda just healed if that happened."

"Even if it pierced your brain?"

Fu narrowed her eyes and adopted a thinking pose. "I… don't actually know what would happen. That's never happened to me." She looked at Kurotsuchi, eyes half-lidded and with a dangerous mind in plan. "You wouldn't want…"

"I'm not helping you with it," Kurotsuchi said resolutely.

Fu lost the support of her body and flopped forward. "Awww. But you didn't let me finish."

"Didn't have to."

"I was just going to ask if you wanted to have a threesome with me," Fu mumbled.

Kurotsuchi almost blushed. Almost, mind you. She huffed and turned away. "One, that's not what you were going to ask. Two, no. Three, Naruto isn't even here."

Fu got an impish smirk. "Who said anything about Naruto? Hey Yugito!"

"What?!" The woman shouted back from the front of the train.

"Kurotsuchi wants to have a threesome!"

"I do not!"

There was a pause and Yugito got her breath back from her labors and processed the information that she had just received. "Stop messing around, you two! If you've got time to fuck around, you've got time to help me lead the way!"

Temari hopped out of the wagon and started trudging forth. "A castle with wide open plains all around it would be a terrible idea if you're being attacked by normal people. But it's just about the easiest way to stop an advance of shinobi. The samurai know what they're doing. And nobody knows what sort of truce the minor nations are going to come up with, so we have to keep our wits about us."

"Why can't Fu just fly us all there, anyway?" Kurotsuchi asked. "We've got a giant flying monster. We should be making use of it."

"For the same reason there's only five of us here. We don't know when or if the man with the swirled mask is going to make a move and drawing attention is the last thing we want. The conference of minor village heads at the land of iron is as good a place as any to enact a strategy, but we also can't count on his timing of it. We trudge along and hope we don't get noticed during transit. If he does find us, everyone who's making a perimeter around us converge and give us time to escape."

"Weren't you listening to the plan?" Fu asked.

"She was asleep, I think," Temari answered.

"It took you this long to ask about it?" Fu brought up as well.

Kurotsuchi showed her palms and shrugged. "I just… I just want this to be over as soon as possible. Tell me to follow Yugito through snowy mountains? Sure, if it means that's the easiest way through it all."

Temari and Fu shared a knowing, somewhat concerned look. "What are you going to do after this?" Temari asked.

Kurotsuchi let out a belt of frustrated breath. How did she know a question like that was coming her way? "I don't know. I don't know what I want. Hopefully, I'll pick up a hobby or something. Maybe once it gets really peaceful, I'll go on missions again. What are you two going to do anyways?"

"I'm… going to be the kazekage."

"And I don't know what I'm going to do," Fu said, looking up at the quickly darkening sky. "I'm thinking I'm just going to relax for a bit."

This time it was Kurotsuchi's and Temari's turn to share a knowing look. "Relax?" Kurotsuchi asked. "You?"

"I can live without constant excitement," Fu said with a slight pout. "Have a little faith, why don't you?"

"We haven't really been given a reason to have faith in you, in regard to that statement," Kurotsuchi said.

"I think the only time I've seen you relaxed was when you were asleep after Naruto dicked you," Temari added.

Kurotsuchi squinted and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know, I used to think that you were rubbing off too much on him, but now it sounds like he's rubbing off on you."

Temari grinned lasciviously. "Damn right he's rubbing off on me."

It took shockingly very little time for Kurotsuchi to grasp the lecherous implications of her statement. She gave up when she did, shoulders sagging down and her last remaining breath leaving her lungs. "Are we there yet?"

"We'd be there a lot sooner if I got some help!" Yugito yelled back, followed by a bright blue flare of fire illuminating the way forward.

"Right, right," Temari said, walking faster to achieve her original goal of helping Yugito out.

This left Kurotsuchi and Fu alone, walking next to the wagon holding their supplies and last occupant, Mei. "Do you really think I can't relax?" Fu asked, lacking her usual exuberance. It was really the only way Kurotsuchi knew when to take her seriously.

"I don't know," Kurotsuchi said. "Maybe? I've kinda got the feeling that things aren't going to die down just because there's peace between the nations, so going on real, actual missions to help things out when this is all over sounds like the thing for me to do. But it's not something I've put real thought into. I can't guess what I'm going to want in the future. So I really can't guess what you're going to want in the future.

"I guess that's fair," Fu said, nodding to what she was hearing. "I think I wanna be a mom."

Kurotsuchi's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. She looked at the other girl mimicking a gaping fish. "W-Wha… How old are you again?

"Okay, okay, in a few years," Fu said, holding a hand up to stop Kurotsuchi's imaginations. "Or… I don't know when. I just know what I know."

Kurotsuchi nodded. "Well, uhhh, good luck with that?"

"What about you?" Fu said with a devilish smirk while leaning closer to her slightly. "Do you wanna pop any hellraisers out?'

"Haaa… well, considering I can't have extramarital affairs, none. Even if I were to throw my shits to the wind and have one, my dating pool is ridiculously small. And even if were to catch a guy, the possibility of starting a long-term relationship is disappearingly small. So the chances of me catching a guy, going into a long-term relationship, _and then_ having a baby is just about zero."

If Fu was anything at that moment, it was that she was impressed by the leaps of logic. "Or you could… you know…"

Kurotsuchi looked at her for a few seconds, waiting for an end to the thought, before finishing it herself. "Naruto."

"I never was clear on how you felt about him," Fu confessed.

"He's… nice."

"I think… we're both aware of his attributes. I want to know how you feel about him."

"Okay," Kurotsuchi said, putting her hands on her hips. "How do you think I feel about him? I like him, okay? He's probably one of my best friends right now. Hell, he's one of my only friends."

"But…"

"But what?"

"Is that it?" Fu asked, somewhat perplexed. "I thought you were in love with him and weren't acting on it because he was seeing Temari, then me, then Yugito."

"I think…" Kurotsuchi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I think I was in love him. And I might still be. But I'm not sure if the same goes for him. After all, he has you, Temari, and Yugito. He doesn't really need me anymore."

Fu cracked a grin and chuckled a little bit. "Love isn't about need. Well, maybe, depending on how you define 'need'. Anyway, you don't love someone just because you need them. And you don't need someone just because you love them. It's about want; desire; the thing that you can't rationalize."

Kurotsuchi blinked and looked at her suspiciously. " _Does_ he love me?"

Fu shrugged. "Wouldn't know, he hasn't told me and I haven't asked. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. And if you told me you loved him I wouldn't tell him. It's not something for a third party to put their hands in and muck about with."

Kurotsuchi turned back to the trench she was walking through. Temari was augmenting the fire Yugito was producing with her wind attacks, meaning there were more frequent rushes of warm water going past her boots and they were able to walk forward faster. "Good for you for being faithful, I guess."

"It _is_ a good attribute to have, you know?"

Kurotsuchi nodded. "It is, it is. I won't refute that… I guess I'll be left guessing until he comes back."

Fu hopped on the wagon and laid herself out on the top of it. She was wearing light clothes, but was able to stave off the cold by continually taking in her beast chakra. It made Kurotsuchi want to put a coat on the girl. "Well, let's say everything goes lovey dovey. What after that?"

Kurotsuchi crossed her arms and glared up at the girl. "Oh come on, why do we have to pay so much attention to the future? Why can't I figure it out as I go along? There are too many paths forward to make adequate plans anyway. For now, it's blow-by-blow for me."

"Halleluiah!" Came the muffled voice of Mei from inside the wagon.

"She gets it!" Kurotsuchi said with a huff of laughter.

Fu put her hands underneath her head and looked at the sky slowly get darker and darker. "As chaotic as the times have been, I think I'm going to miss them a little bit."

Kurotsuchi looked up at her dubiously. "The times? What's so great about them?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Maybe it's just because it's almost over."

Kurotsuchi shook her head a little bit. "If I'm looking back on this time fondly, then that means the future is going to suck ass."

"Future's not the only thing going to be sucking ass!" Temari yelled back, followed by uproarious laughter from everyone except for Kurotsuchi, who glowered at the ground and tried not to let a smile come to her lips.

00000000

Mei sat down the bed first, letting the notion that she would stay in the position and function like how a kage would function flitter across her mind for a few graceful seconds before she plopped the rest of her body on the bed and belted out a huge sigh of relief. The bed wasn't even a little bit comfortable, but anything beat the rickety old wagon. She did like the horses though. They were the more stout, furrier variety, made for dragging wagons and carriages through snow. They were cute little sweethearts and they were still alive, surprisingly enough.

She'd had misgivings the entire trip. How they hadn't been attacked at sea was anyone's guess, but it didn't happen. Because of that, the idea that they'd be surprised while on the way to the land of iron was almost a surety in her mind and also the reason why she made so many redundant fallbacks in case they were attacked. All of which, turned out to not really matter in the end.

They made it.

They were safe.

Yugito spit very loudly into their shared bathroom sink and the sounds of her washing her mouth and toothbrush followed suit. The woman walked out while in the process of undoing her braid while belting out a wide yawn. She was wearing loose and cozy-looking pajamas that had shuriken art on them.

"You really _are_ a beautiful woman, you know that?"

Yugito paused and slowly turned to Mei, a cautious look in her eyes. "Thank you?"

Mei tilted her head, a warm smile splitting her face. "Don't be so cagey; it was a sincere compliment. It's just so odd to me that you had such bad luck with men before Naruto."

Yugito shrugged. "It's not that I had never been advanced upon, but I had been burned badly and was content to live as a useful tool to my village." She sat down on the bed, feeling the rough blanket between her fingers. "Oh, how the times have changed."

"Oh, I get that," Mei breathed out. She had just gotten in the room after confirming the following days plans. She still had to get her makeup off and get into proper sleep attire. Apparently, all the minor village heads, sans the head of rain, who no one had even seen before, had all arrived and negotiations were planning to take place the day after and continue until a settlement could be reached.

It would take either a very short or a very long time for them to come to agreement on how they ought to interact with each other from then on. When and why they could bring up tariffs, shared responsibilities for dealing with bandits and robbers, any transnational infrastructure, those kinds of things. They were either going to follow what the major villages had already done or come to their own conclusions. Them being there was originally meant to be a symbolic gesture, but now they were essentially a bodyguard detail in case there was an attack.

Her nerves were getting riled up. Their enemy had too many unknowns, too many variables. The last time they had gone up against him, they got thrashed and only escaped by the skin of their teeth. She liked to think that their chances of survival were better this time around, but she didn't actually know that. It was worrisome.

"Can I ask you a question?" Yugito asked.

"You already have."

The cat woman's eyes went half-lidded. "Are you okay with this?"

"Okay with what?"

Yugito shrugged. "Anything, really. The marriage is a good place to start. The future. The man with the swirled mask. Take your pick."

Mei considered the slew of questions for a moment. "The marriage is treating me fine so far. The future is looking… good if we have some presumptions about how the man with the swirled mask arrives."

"Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"Do you love him?"

Mei hummed a light laughter. "Love, huh? I'm starting to feel like that's a mainstay of what we talk about."

"It's important."

"Is it the most important?"

"Depends on the timing of it. If I'm being attacked, you can rest assured that I won't be thinking of anything frivolous. If I'm, well, _trying_ , to console a friend, I won't be thinking about my love life. And even now, it's probably not the most important. But it's important to me. Do you love him?"

"…I love him in a way," Mei finally said, wistfully. "I've seen a lot. More than most. Much of it unpleasant to dwell upon. I'm perhaps somewhat cynical of most people… and Naruto is the most directly opposite that that I can think of. He's… uhm… cute, I guess. Not in the puppy-dog way, or even in the pitiful way. Just a bit naïve."

Yugito regarded her with the side of her eye. "Can you envision a future where we're both in the same bed, talking over him?"

Mei blinked twice. "That's quite a way of asking if I want to fuck him."

"Not just sex," Yugito added.

Mei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Probably," she said. "I want kids. And I also believe in this union from the bottom of my heart. Ergo... you can fill in the rest on your own."

Yugito hummed approval, nodded, and sat down on the bed, drawing the covers over herself. Mei waited for the conversation to continue, but after a couple minutes of her staring at the back of the other woman's head, she lost to her own curiosity.

"Is that… okay?" Mei asked tentatively. "It's not like I'm going to rape him, or emotionally bend his arm into doing it, if that's what you think."

"I don't think you'd do that," Yugito said plainly, turning around in bed and sitting up. "I'm just… trying to get a handle on you."

One of Mei's eyebrows went up. "Get a handle on me?"

Yugito bit her cheek and glanced to the side. "Maybe that's wrong. Not 'get a handle'… I'm trying to figure you out, if that makes sense."

Mei blinked twice, again. "You're not the first person to try to figure me out and also not the last, I'll assume. What's bringing this on, anyway?"

"Well, we're…" Yugito blushed a little bit and looked away. "We're family, right?" she asked resolutely. "And I don't know anything about you, or why you are the way you are."

"Is that… necessary?" Mei asked, almost wincing.

Yugito shrugged. "It's necessary to me. Otherwise I'm just talking to this… to this puddle."

"A puddle?"

"A shallow existence. There's no depth to you, to me."

Mei sighed a little bit and looked away. "It's not a good story."

"Mine isn't peaches and rainbows either."

"That's a… fair enough point, I guess."

Mei didn't continue on with her train of thought for long enough for Yugito to wonder if she was going to continue at all. "Do you not want to get too close to us, to me?"

Tapping her finger to her knee, Mei nodded in the slightest of ways. "It's possible. Putting everything you have into someone only for them to be taken from you is a lot of work and takes a lot of energy. I'm thinking I might be out of that."

"Then why do you want kids?" Yugito asked severely.

Mei shrugged.

"Don't shrug. You know. You're just not telling me. Putting everything you have into someone knowing that they're going to die is what being a mom is all about, or at least it's what being a mom is supposed to be all about."

Mei squinted at the floor. "I want to make something real and put it into the world. Really real. It's nice being kage and walking among the people and talking to them and hearing them thank me for one thing I've done or another, but then I'll walk away and I won't remember their faces or their names and it'll be just another notch on a belt for me. I want to make something. Something good. Because maybe if I make something good enough, then that means that the world isn't so bad. If I can make something good, then that means that if enough people make enough good things, then the world will be good. Not just better. Not just bearable. Good. That's what I want." Mei pressed her lips together and refused to make eye-contact with Yugito.

A short silence reigned. "Is that… Is that why you offered yourself for the marriage?"

Mei blinked. "What? I could have kids with any suitor that pleased me. I didn't do this for the sake of forcing myself to have kids, if that's what you're asking."

Yugito shook her head. "It's not. I was asking if you volunteered because you wanted to make something real, put it into the world, and make the world a good place."

Mei shrugged, this time for real. "I'm sure that had a part to play in all of it. There were other factors of motivation too, of course. No relatives and no females of whom I have close ties to. It would strengthen mist. Less death. But… yes, I wanted to make something good."

Yugito tried to give as reassuring smile as was possible. "Hey, you did it. The alliance is here. People are getting along, finally. We're done with war."

Before Mei could respond, the room they were in vibrated violently as an explosion rocked the castle somewhere on its other side. They only had to share a single look before finality set in.

It was go time.

00000000

Kurotsuchi woke up from the sound of the explosion going off on the far side of the castle. But what really woke her up was falling from her uncomfortable bed to the even more uncomfortable concrete floor. "Aww… FUck-" she tried to yell, but got smacked in the face with a sword scabbard, cutting her voice off at the knees.

Temari and Fu (who had been sharing a bed, which led to a somewhat awkward conversation between the three of them) were already out the door by the time she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and found her footing. "Thanks," she mumbled to herself as she clipped the scabbard to her nightwear and ran out the door.

Almost immediately, from the opposite direction Temari and Fu ran to, a giant wooden salamander piloted by Temari's brother, Kankuro, came careening through the hallway. Kurotsuchi hopped on with nary a word edgewise and drew her sword out, keeping it at her side and at the ready for anything that might threaten her.

They caught up with Temari and Fu within ten seconds and they hopped on too. Temari mumbled a thanks, which Kankuro nodded to. If pressed, Kurotsuchi would have to admit that she had only found out Kankuro was traveling with them that evening, such was the way that their travel plan unfolded over the week it took to get there. Apparently, he'd had a pretty good time all on his lonesome.

"Any ideas?" Fu asked.

"Sounded like an explosion," Kurotsuchi offered sardonically.

"It wasn't large," Temari said. "There's been no other signs of commotion. Hopefully, this is just… the…"

Her words got lost in her mouth. The salamander slowed to a crawl and finally stopped in a wide open room. The dead bodies of samurais littered the floors, even staked to the walls at points, their copious amounts of armor doing their best to hold the spilled blood inside. That was all only decoration of the main draw, however. In the middle of the room was a giant, burning, purple, transparent ribcage. And at the bottom of the ribcage was Sasuke Uchiha, grinning like a madman with blood pouring out of his left eye.

"Oh, fuck," Temari finished eloquently.

His head swiveled up to look at them, grinning like a demon. He reached his arm out and black fire raced through the air straight at them.

00000000

Yugito and Mei threw open the door to the main conference room and immediately stopped cold in their tracks. The man with the swirled mask was on top of a conference table, holding Shibuki up in the air by his neck. The water swords that the man usually used a mainstay for fighting technique had failed and sloshed to the lacquered hardwood. They couldn't figure out if he was alive or dead. All across the room in chairs looking inward were the various heads of villages with varying degrees of fear evident on their faces.

The swirled mask turned to look at them in an eerily inhuman way. He focused on Yugito. "I don't suppose you'd sacrifice yourself willingly and heroically?"

The muscles along Yugito's jaw knotted and unknotted. Her mouth scrunched up and she shook her head.

He hummed a little bit and tilted his head downward as if he were genuinely saddened by her reaction. "Hm… I see… that's a shame."

From the shadows of the room, a large figure walked forward, intimidating and monster-like in appearance. His sword shivered and undulated rapidly. Kisame's black, dead eyes stared into their souls. "You're the only one whose chakra I'm missing right now. The best part is that I don't even need your whole beast—Well, it'd be easier if I did, but I'm not the greedy type."

One of the heads of a village Yugito didn't even remember hissed at her "If you don't do it. We're all going to die."

More dead figures walked out of the dark of the room. Akatsuki members who could be brought back, past village heads, legendary shinobi of any day or age. There was a familiar face in the bunch that made both Mei and Yugito glad that Temari wasn't there. A shock of red hair with a gourd filled with sand on his back.

Gaara was back from the dead.

The last one that stepped out was hunched over and cloaked in a red hood with a giant constrictor peeking its head out of the back.

"And you said this would be over within the day, correct?"

"If all goes as planned, yes. But that's assuming all goes as planned. I've learned not to lean on that assumption around these people. That's enough from me on the subject." He looked back to Yugito and tightened his grip on Shibuki's throat. A newly pained expression blossomed on his face and his limbs struggled fitfully against his captor. "Right now, you're outmatched. Come with me willingly, or I slaughter everyone in the room, one by one, starting with your friend here."

"Friend where?"

Obito looked at Shibuki, or more accurately, the voice that was most definitely not Shibuki coming from the throat he was holding. When he did look, the only thing he saw was a red eye with swirling tomoe and then he saw nothing but pitch blackness.

He fazed out of existence, letting 'Shibuki' fall to the ground, where he was engulfed with a puff of smoke that Kakashi walked out of. Behind Mei and Yugito, more of their heavy hitting comrades began filing into the room. The air went cold and the tension was high. Every addition to their numbers was another tic in the box of reasons why things could go nuclear at any moment in time in such a small room.

Obito fazed back into existence. He saw Ai and his escort, Onoki, leaf ninja, Tsunade and Jiraiya, Mei, Yugito, and the numbers kept increasing. And it wasn't just from the big five either. Bodyguards for the minor village heads appearing the swell too.

"They don't look too outmatched to me," Kabuto murmured.

If looks could kill, the room would be covered in blood and viscera through Obito's gaze alone. "What are you waiting for?" he ground out. "Go get her!"

And then the room exploded outwards.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Kurotsuchi was breathing hard as she ran from pillar to pillar, dodging out of the way of the debris falling from all around her. She only had a few seconds at most to regain cognizance of her surroundings per pillar before her cover was blown and she had to go to the next. What she saw in between her brief moments of respite was some of the most unbelievable stuff she'd ever seen in her life.

And that was saying a lot.

A giant made of glowing purple bone and armor walking forward, trying its hardest to destroy what was in front of it with a sword the size of any of the pillars she usually hid behind and black fire pouring from its mouth.

It was Sasuke. Naruto's rival/brother figure. The way Naruto talked about him put the exact wrong picture in Kurotsuchi's head. A nice-hearted, but stubborn and dark kid that got swayed by the promise of power in order to exact revenge against his real brother. Perhaps not the most glamorous type of person to exist, but Kurotsuchi would be lying if she said she couldn't understand that type of person. It was only about two months ago that if someone said the hidden leaf was destroyed a smile would come to her lips. Things change, but the way he was described gave her some empathy for the situation he was in.

Now…

Fu, covered head to toe in purple battle armor slammed into the giant's chest feet first and pushed back with all her might, launching herself backwards and staggering him a little bit. As she did a full rotation in the air, she whipped her arms around and dug the sharp end of an exoskeletal polearm into the giant's ribcage, pulling herself forward and landing another kick to its chest.

They were trying to topple him, hoping that would reveal the squishier human it was hiding. Kurotsuchi didn't know if Fu was planning on killing him after that or what, but it was a fight for survival for all of them. Worst still, after trying to dig a tunnel underneath the giant purple monster thing, he'd been targeting her most of all. The worrying part was he must have been doing that because he considered her actions his biggest threat. And considering she was in a room with a Jinchuuriki, a kage, and a puppet master, the fact that she was the biggest threat spoke volumes to an apparent lack of hope they had.

She dashed out between her pillar, quickly firing off a shot of quicklime at the giant's base before diving behind another pillar. The biggest plan she had for her was to pepper him with small shots of the quick drying cement and douse the base with a lot of water, hopefully blinding him to the outside world and keeping him in place long enough to figure out what to do with him.

Temari and Kankuro came rolling around on the Salamander puppet, doing the dual job of being mobile enough that he can't get a good hit on her and allowing her the vantage point she needed to let loose huge gales of wind at him, further disorienting him.

Another hit to the pillar she was hiding behind. The fight was becoming patterned and routinized. That was never good. It always meant that the losing side was going to do something big and crazy to flip the game board over and come out on top. She had to end things quick.

"Fu! Buy me time!" Kurotsuchi shouted out before breaking for cover one last time. The green-haired girl was already on the case, having abandoned her wings for a heavy set of armor with four arms that had oversized hands attached to the ends. Sasuke's Susanoo dropped a bastard sword the size of a building on Kurotsuchi, which was caught by Fu's hulking form.

Kurotsuchi finished doing her required handseals and shot a geyser of water at Sasuke's base. It hit the dust that was on the ground and shot up around him, covering at least up to the giant's chest with the quick drying cement with a thick base around the bottom.

She was confident in the strength of her cement, but she also knew that she was a human amongst giants. Being around so many powerhouses at once had started to make her wonder how useful she could be at helping a fight.

One second.

Two.

She let out a breath and fell to a knee to catch her breath. She'd been consuming a lot of chakra getting all that quicklime out and running around like a spider trying not to get swatted. But he was immobile and ripe for the picking. The plan worked.

That is, until a sword sheathed in a raiment of lightening cut out a hole in the cement binding and flew forward, spearing Fu through the midsection and slicing open a gash in Kurotsuchi's abdomen in one moment.

Kurotsuchi grabbed her bloodied side and jumped out of the way while Fu and her ton of armor fell to one knee. She was a normal human, thus Kurotsuchi's wound was more grievous. Despite the fact that her face was scrunched in pain, she was able to glare open her eyes in the direction where Sasuke came from and saw him directly in front of her, sword sizzling its covered blood, her blood, from the lighting chakra coursing over it.

His face was like something he'd never seen before. Someone so thoroughly twisted by hatred and a lust for vengeance that it had ceased to be human. His eyes like swirling pools of brackish blood, even leaking the damn fluid.

"Naruto was wrong about you," Kurotsuchi gasped. The pain was intense and the cut was deep. It might have nicked something important

He paused, maybe even flinched for a fraction of a second. "So you know him?"

Kurotsuchi chuckled lightly. "Know him? I'm married to him."

His eyes went to her forehead protector, then back to her. Past the hatred, confusion settled on his brow. He was clearly out of the loop. Regardless, she continued on. "He talked about you sometimes. Made it out like you were brothers. Rivals in all aspects. He never gave up on you. Loves you and wants to bring you back to leaf." Kurotsuchi paused to catch her breath and get back on her feet, despite the jabs of pain lancing up her body. Sasuke's face was difficult to read. But the hatred was getting more intense. She could feel it on her skin. She could see visions of her death dance before her eyes.

Regardless, she continued on. "But you're not that. Not anymore. You're just a thing now. Not human, not beast, not demon. A thing which is hard to define controlled by something else even harder to define. A riderless wagon hitched to nothing but darkness, pulled forward. I don't think he'd recognize you if he saw you now."

His face settled. The novelty of her knowing Naruto had worn off in a big way. He didn't care if she was married to Naruto. She was going to die.

Lightning rolled through the sword like a storm and pierced the ground. He pulled up, slicing through the cement like rotting butter and arcing up to her, aiming to cut her in twain.

It got close enough that she could feel the static electricity arc up and tickle her legs before a scythe of wind disrupted the lightning and dissipated it. Temari and Kankuro, while riding the salamander, came to a stop right next to Kurotsuchi. The kazekage disembarked and clanked her war fan to the ground, eyes set forward, completely unperturbed.

"Sasuke Uchiha," she stated. "I don't have any idea why you are here, but you're surrounded and outmatched. Give yourself up and we might be able to work out a plea deal for you."

"Outmatched?" He questioned mirthfully, like she had just told him a joke. "Don't kid yourself. The fact that you were made kage after your brother died just goes to show how little military might the hidden sand has, rather than any talent you might have. If you run now, you might survive. That's the only deal I'm willing to make."

Temari's jaw clenched. Kurotsuchi had been stalling for time for Fu to get her torso stitched back together, and for good reason. That girl was the real heavy hitter of the bunch, and everyone knew it. More to the point, Temari didn't know why Sasuke was here. What was really worrying her was that they were still the only ones on the scenes. Either nobody else heard it, or they're all preoccupied with something else and she didn't know which of the two was worse. She had to find out what Sasuke wanted and keep it away from him at the expense of everything else.

"Naruto's not here," she said harshly, letting the fan open to its full extent.

His grin just got bigger. "I'm not here for that loser."

"What _are_ you here for?"

He didn't answer, face turning back to that of a demon's. His free hand went up to his face, covering an eye, prompting a surge of black fire to launch forward, hungry and intent on devouring her.

Kankuro jumped forward and got hit by the brunt of the attack, quickly becoming engulfed completely. Kurotsuchi let out a yelp of surprise while Temari's face remained stony. After struggling for a few seconds, he fell to the ground and laid still.

Not waiting, Sasuke launched forward, sword in hand. He was as quick as the wind and as ravenous as the sea. He planted a foot in front of her and swung the sword on a path to decapitate her head.

What he didn't see nor expect was for Kankuro's burnt hand to shoot out from his position on the ground and grab his ankle with a vice grip, pulling on the bloodthirsty lunatic and unbalancing him, providing the perfect opportunity for Temari to heft her war fan and swing it downwards diagonally.

Sasuke ducked under it and tried to wrench his foot away from the still burning man, but only succeeded in pulling the surprisingly light puppeteer from the ground and towards him, where several more hands and arms untangled themselves from the body and wrapped themselves around the Uchiha. Through the burning cloth, he could see a wooden face with three eyes and a mouth full of venomous instruments.

A puppet.

He should have known.

Not risking a close engagement, Temari swung her fan and created a dense bullet of air aimed straight at his chest. Tied down as he was, the only thing he could do was hastily bring up a Susanoo rib as quickly as he could and was shot across the room even still.

He hit the wall in a puff of purple bones, black fire, broken puppet, and dust.

Kurotsuchi started shambling away in the opposite direction of where Sasuke was, her breath short and ragged and intensely pained. Her hand was hiding a side slick with the wet of blood and despite her pressure on it, the blood wasn't letting up in the slightest. She fell to her knees at the bottom of a broken pillar and started kicking off her pants.

Nearly biting a wound into her cheek, she removed her hands and glanced down for a second. Just under her ribs, about half a foot long, and a few inches deep. The area around it was turning purple and it was still spouting blood.

Probably a ruptured kidney, internal bleed, and maybe a nicked artery. Even with the advances in medical technology, that was damn near a death sentence for her.

But not if she had anything to say about it.

Kurotsuchi wrapped the legs of her pants around the wound and tied it off, making sure it wouldn't be too much to cut off circulation, but enough to prevent it from leaking everywhere. That was the best she could do and it would have to work for now.

She got to her feet and walked back where she came from, under no pretenses to how much combat efficacy she could give in her condition. Her first duty was to find out where everyone else was and perhaps get some medical treatment. If she survived, then that was gravy.

In the back of the room, she could hear the sounds of the fighting starting back up again. The crackle of lightning, the woosh of flames, the sounds of stone being torn apart and sent flying as shrapnel. It was chaos.

She ducked into one of the smaller hallways that lead into the big room and kept her senses about her. The shaking of the castle wasn't delegated to her single fight with the Uchiha, it seemed. She could feel the vibrations of countless battles, explosions, huge releases of the elements, and anything and everything else that could affect happen during a shinobi fight happen all around her all at the same time.

Ahead of her, she could see a room that was blasted open and the sounds of scuffling inside. She poked her head in and saw Chojuro fighting against twenty or so white, humanoid-type things, all with various disfigurations and manic grins. He was making short work of them, but there was a lot to contend with. She thought about joining in, but the knowledge that she couldn't even run, much less swing a sword tempered that leaning.

She pushed off the wall as quietly as she could and continued on down the hall.

The girl from hidden stone had no idea where she was going or where any of the hallways went to or where she even should be going. But she had to keep on going, that much was certain.

She continued walking until she saw a four-way juncture, each with a hallway leading off into pitch blackness. Forward was empty. Right was empty. Left held a man walking towards her with an orange swirled mask.

Orange swirled mask?

That sounded familiar. Where had she heard that descriptor from?

As he walked forward towards her, his eye became more prominent. As red as fallen blood with a strange pattern swirling around in the middle.

Oh, right. The mastermind of the whole plan. The one who kickstarted everything shitty going on in her life. The one who sent those immortal people to kidnap her friends who almost killed her. The one who destroyed Naruto's life so bad that he became clinically depressed. The one who disrupted her peaceful, ignorant life.

He stopped in front of her. Rather than hatred, his eye held a serious amount of annoyance and frustration. "You're not a Jinchuuriki. You're… what? The wife from stone?"

That's right.

That's what she was.

The goddamn wife from stone.

She hated that, she really did. Who was she? Kurotsuchi? No. Shinobi? No. Person? No. She was wife.

She really hated that.

"And you're… what? The fuckwit who has no dick and decided the whole world should know?"

His brow cocked up and then he shook his head, starting to walk past her. "I've got no time to waste with you."

"What do you want them for?" Kurotsuchi asked just as he was about to brush past her.

He was close enough that she could smell him. Why did he smell normal? He didn't smell strange or horrible or gutwrenching. He smelled just like a normal guy, not the person responsible for so much wanton and reckless death.

Obito looked at her more seriously. "The Jinchuuriki?"

Kurotsuchi nodded.

"I need them for my plan."

Kurotsuchi closed her eye and leaned hard against her sword, using it like a cane as it was sheathed in her scabbard. "Oh, you're not taking out their tailed beasts for shits and giggles? Man, that's… surprising. Would you kindly wait as I gasp from shock?"

"You're not real," he bit back. "None of this is real. A reality where something like this-" His words were punctuated by a particularly large explosion that rattled her bones and sent dust from the ceiling downwards. "A reality where something like this is allowed to happen doesn't deserve to exist. I'm going to make a better one. A real one. One where no one gets hurt. One where no one dies."

Kurotsuchi's jaw clenched. Her pale, anemic face set into a look nearing rage. "You fucking coward. You think you can hide away into a… into a what? A fantasy world? That's why you're doing this? That's why you're murdering people? Just so you can close your eyes to the fact that the world is a shit place sometimes? Everyone who talked about you said you were the strongest person they had ever encountered. Like a tailed beast condensed into human form. But you're not strong. You're the weakest man I know. The weakest one I've ever heard of."

His lone eye went half-lidded. "You're content with the way things are?"

She shook her head. "Of course not. But at least I'm doing my best to change it. To change it without hurting anyone. Or at the very least, without fucking murder. Like you're doing."

He didn't respond to her, instead continuing on his way past her. Not killing her. Not hurting her.

Ignoring her.

Kurotsuchi snarled and unsheathed her sword, taking a shaky step and flinging the blade end over end towards his back. It passed right through him, like he wasn't even real, but it didn't clang against the floor. His arm whipped back, throwing the blade he had caught right back at her.

She couldn't dodge it.

It pierced her in the chest with such force that it sunk all the way to the hilt and then continued on, pushing her to the ground.

Kurotsuchi was left on the cold stone floor in the middle of the crossroads, staring at the ceiling in a pool of her own blood.

00000000

Mei roundhouse kicked the second Mizukage in the back, directly into the waiting sealing arrangement that Jiraiya had on him. He was easier to deal with than the others because the room they were in was smaller than he could use for his genjutsu summons. That, and she knew how to detect his invisibility illusions which, when coupled with hers and Jiraiya's surprisingly good combat synergy led to a very quick sealing.

Some of them had turned into puppets; corpses without a brain that retained all their power, while others still had retained some of their cognizance and were doing their best to not murder their supposed quarry.

It was working good in their favor at the very least. But that meant they were solely on the defensive. As soon as the battle started, it spread out to all the castle's corners, which Mei would hazard exactly was what the masked man wanted. They had no idea where he was, or the remaining Jinchuuriki were.

Yugito, Fu, Naruto.

Yugito had been strong before she had gained complete control over Matatabi's power, but now that she had, the woman was damn near unstoppable, somewhere near where Yagura had been in his prime. As far as Fu went, Mei hadn't even seen her fully let loose. Naruto, however, was the real variable in the situation.

From Jiraiya's intel, she knew that the masked man was using the chakra of the tailed beasts to do achieve something big, but they didn't know if he needed all of the tailed beasts' chakra powers, or a portion. Would he need all nine if he had eight and a half? Would five be okay if it was only a portion of all 9 of them?

They were dealing with too many unknowns.

Jiraiya thumped her on the shoulder and thumbed a direction to their left. He had scouting toads all around the castle, keeping an eye on all of the battles going forth. Almost every one was turning into a battle of attrition since he was practically the only shinobi with the know how of creating seals powerful enough to contain those powerhouses. That, and there were all those white plant people running around. The Zetsus, she'd heard them call themselves. Almost powerless in and of themselves, but they could overrun the samurai stationed there easily enough in great numbers.

The two of them ran into another hallway, blowing past rubble and debris that got in their way like it was made of so much Styrofoam. "How's it look?" she asked. "Where's Yugito and Fu?"

"Yugito's fighting kekkai genkai holders in a training room on the opposite end of the castle. She's doing fine. Fu's with Temari and Kankuro fighting Sasuke. He isn't one of the reincarnated, so they should be fine. I don't have eyes on either the masked man or Kurotsuchi, which I don't like."

"Kurotsuchi's a hardy girl; she'll be fine. More importantly, she's smart enough not to get involved with anyone too much stronger than her," Mei said almost breathlessly as she blasted a hole in the wall, leading to a room where Ai and the Third Raikage were fighting, each blurs of electricity in their own right.

The two of them leapt into the fray, chakra collecting in their hands, ready to fight.

Mei, however, wasn't concentrating on the fight. All the better for her, considering if she was thinking about it, she could lose an arm or her head, such was the lethality that the Third Raikage represented. Instead, she was thinking about Naruto.

As things were, she didn't know if it was better for him to stay on the toad mountain, or for him to come and join the fray. The only thing she'd heard about his powers were hearsay from Yugito and Fu from the island, putting him only slightly weaker than them. And he was only getting stronger on the toad mountain, supposedly.

Bringing him here would put him in danger, but severely bolster their own ranks against the masked man's. That may also be what the masked man was hoping for. If Naruto joined them, he could get hurt. He could die.

That wasn't something she wanted to chance. Compared to her in age, he was a child, but more and more she had been looking up to him as something she wanted, something she was grasping for for a very long time. Not even as a romantic partner. The kind of life he led was the kind of life she wanted. Completely unafraid to attach himself to anything he deemed worthy enough and to not let go, no matter how much it pained him to do so. Now _that_ was something she had never seemed to be able to grasp. And it came so naturally to him that it almost made her jealous.

There was something about him that just seemed so pure and unadulterated that to put him in harms way would be like committing a grave sin. Like showing up to a funeral drunk. Throwing mud at a wedding dress. Something that just shouldn't happen.

Maybe it was just that she wanted to protect him. If he died, if he got hurt, if he got jaded, if he grew to hate the world that he used to love, a piece of her would go with him. In truth, a lot of her was riding on him. More than she would like to admit.

More than anything, he was the answer to the question of what it was all for. The reason why she shed so much blood and so much blood shed from her. Why so many people had to die. She'd been let down so many times before that if she was broken one last time, she knew that it would be over for her.

The lightning between the two leaders of the village hidden in the clouds finally dissipated. The third had been sealed and the fourth still looked pretty good. Most of the battles the two of them had solved had left the person who was keeping the reincarnated at bay so exhausted as to not be able to rejoin the battle. It was good that Ai was still around. They needed him.

"Go that way," Jiraiya said, pointing behind him. "You'll find Shibuki holding off a wave of the Zetsus. Don't let him die."

Ai nodded without a word edgewise and ran to go help the minor village head.

Jiraiya turned to Mei and narrowed his eyes slightly. She was looking to the side, breathing slightly heavily being the only sign of battle stress on her. She was out of it in a big way. How she'd been able to fight the Third Raikage like that was anyone's guess.

"Have you been hit?" He asked.

She noticed him with a start and shook her head. "No, I'm good. Where to next?"

He hesitated for a fraction of a second and moved to exit the room from where they had entered from, finding his way back into the labyrinth that comprised most of the castle. "This way. Tsunade's fighting Kakuzu."

"Kakuzu?"

"You fought him before. He had iron hard skin, was full of tentacles, and had multiple hearts in his body."

Mei nodded and continued after him. "So that's what his name was."

"She's holding well, but she can't summon Katsuyu until he's taken care of."

When he didn't get a response from her, he looked back and noticed she was looking down, eyes completely focused and unmoving. Again, she was out of it. "What's wrong?!" questioned aggressively.

She started again, looking back up to him. "I think you should make sure Naruto doesn't come back."

His jaw set in place and he turned back around. He'd been giving it an amount of thought as well. "There are too many unknowns to make a good decision. I've sent a messenger toad to him. If he decides to come back, then he'll come back."

Mei's brow furrowed. "If you let him know what happened, then he'll come back regardless of whether he's finished his training.

"He's learned a lot since he was a kid. He's got more wisdom than he has any right to have. If he comes back, then I trust he'll have put some thought into it."

000000000

On toad mountain.

"I'm going back," Naruto said resolutely, eyes tinged with the telltale signs of sage-mode.

Pa put his hands up, eyes closed from annoyance and an unbelieving smile across his mouth. "Why don't you put some thought into it? You _just_ figured out how to collect the sage energy on your own. You don't know what-"

"I've thought about it enough," Naruto said, completely unwavering. "Now send me back."


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Yugito ducked under an orb of scorch release and swept her tail broadside against the shinobi from sand that sent it her way. The tail of blue fire bisected her, flinging out bits and pieces of ashen paper and putting her out of commission for at least thirty seconds. Not being able to rest on her laurels for even a second, Yugito had to summon a wall of consuming fire in a column around her, which melted the cold ice of a member of the yuki clan. She pounced out of it like a tiger hidden in the grass, shoved her elongated nails into his abdomen, and wrenched away, letting him fall to the ground in pieces so thinly sliced as to look like deli meat.

She didn't have a way to seal them away, but she was strong enough that she could deal with them with relative ease. But there were a lot of them and if she hadn't mastered the use of Matatabi's chakra, then she'd have died dozens of times over by then.

Luckily for her, she had.

Magnet release, blast release, Byakugan, the whole gamut came out to play with her and the only thing she could do was to keep them at bay and hope that Jiraiya was alive enough to help her put them away before they could wander off and do damage on someone who couldn't handle it.

Strangely, despite the fact that she was very truly fighting for survival, her heart wasn't beating with the same flitted up-down, yes-no, do-or-die type of lightning fast deep primal level impulses. For lack of a better word, she felt calm and serene. Like someone who had mastered a particular way of movement. She didn't have to think about the fight, it just happened and she let her body do it for her. A slip up could mean the end of her, but she knew that she wouldn't do that and she also knew that the enemies couldn't force it on her either.

She was ready to take on the world. If the world won, then the world won. But if it won, it wouldn't be because she didn't try.

She stopped, pressed against the floor with her limbs splayed out, baring her fangs at an invisible enemy. All the kekkai genkai users were motes of paper in the wind. She had a few seconds respite before the next one fully reformed and came with the intent to kill again.

Yugito closed her eyes and focused on breathing. It was in those scant few moments that images of her loved ones came to mind.

Kurotsuchi, a brave girl with a mouth that would make a sailor blush. Fu, the one who laughed at everything, even when the world threw the worst it had at her. Temari, who stood tall when everything around her fell to pieces. Mei, a bastion of wise council, never changing, never having to change. Naruto, the one she decided to stand next to.

And also Ai and Bee and Omoi and Karui and, hell, even Samui or Atsui. She thought of Sakura and Kakashi and she thought of Jiraiya and Tsunade. She thought of them all.

She thought back to when they weren't with her. Or, more accurately, when she wasn't with them. And she smiled. Even in the epicenter of the end of the world, Yugito smiled in remembrance of all those who helped her become more than a monster.

And when she opened her eyes, Fu flew into the room, her back a mass of strange purple extensions that scooped down and entrapped the reforming kekkai genkai users in an instant and dropped off, leaving an inescapable coffin with a struggling zombie inside in its wake. She moved methodically and without having to stop, taking the zombies in her contraption one by one until over the course of half a minute, only she and Yugito were left in the room with functioning movement.

Her back morphed back into itself and she reabsorbed the exoskeletal material from the outside, leaving Fu in an almost completely exhausted state behind. She was leaning against the wall, her hands on a convenient railing as sweat poured from every area on her body. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes bloodshot.

And somehow, she was still smiling. She was still laughing despite her body needing air probably should have taken precedence in that situation.

Yugito jolted forward, her body having suddenly switched gears from survival to making sure Fu was going to make it through the next five seconds. The older woman patted her on the back and gave her some space. "There, there, you okay?"

With a final, wide gulping breath, Fu shuddered out her last chuckles and nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. Been flying over everywhere trying to keep those ash people out of the count. Some people have died, but mostly everyone's alive. Sasuke's here, by the way. Might want to give it a few before saying hi to him. What else… oh, we don't know where swirly face is. Mei and Jiraiya are taking care of the last of the ash people. Temari's facing down Gaara, who's also an ash zombie. Uhm… yeah, I came over to help you out."

Yugito's brain was somewhat overwhelmed with the swamp of new information that swept through. Unfortunately, it didn't give her an idea of what to do next. Her combat potential was really only suited to stalling the zombies in order to buy time for someone to take them out for good. She wasn't really suited for tracking down someone who had the ability to use space altering jutsu either.

Something stuck out though.

"Where's Kurotsuchi?"

"She got hurt in a fight with Sasuke and walked out. She's probably fine though. Out of all of us, she's the survivor."

Yugito wasn't so sure.

"Do we help Temari then?" Yugito asked.

Fu shook her head. "She's got that covered. We need to gather everyone who's still alive and get a chain of command going on."

It made enough sense.

Yugito nodded and made to run to the exit of the room, hoping to get a sense of direction on they way. Fu, however, had something else in mind. Before the older woman could even start, the younger had grabbed her by the elbow and held her in place. Yugito unintentionally tugged forward, but was kept in place. Trying to physically move against Fu was like willing a stone statue to take off its hat. She was too sturdy.

"Hold up," Fu said, her voice quieter after having gotten her breath back.

Yugito looked back. The girl's face was scarlet and was looking to the side. "Are you okay?" Yugito asked, doubling back to put her palm against her forehead.

Fu brushed the hand aside and nodded. "I'm not… I'm not sick." She turned her head forward so she could look at the older woman straight in the eyes. "I need to tell you something. Just in case things go sideways in the next couple of hours."

Yugito gulped and regarded her seriously, unsure of where Fu was going to go.

The girl took one last steadying breath and clenched her fingers into a fist. "I… really look up to you. I have for a long time. I'm not sure if I've said that or intonated it in the past or what, but I just want to make sure that you know that I really respect you for everything you've accomplished and what you had to go through to achieve those things."

The woman felt a small smile come to her lips. It was somewhat rare for her to see Fu struggle to show emotion. It must have been eating her up for a while for her to be so disheveled.

"But… But more than that. You figured out how to be strong, how to come to terms with yourself way before I ever could. And even when I was acting like a bitch, making things worse for everyone, you never lowered yourself to my level. You always cared for me. You always stuck by me. I…" Fu gulped hard and grabbed her hands in her own. "I love you. You and Temari and Kurotsuchi and maybe Mei. And Naruto. I love all of you. Romantically. I consider you my family. Now and forever. This contract might not have been any of what we wanted at first, but I can't imagine a better future without it. Thanks. Thanks for being you."

In a way, Yugito was struck by her words, but she also knew them to be deeply true in another way. Yugito wrapped Fu in a big hug and held her close to her body, squeezing like her life depended on it. "Don't look up to me too hard. I'm only the way I am because of you and Naruto and Kurotsuchi, Temari, Mei… You all mean so much to me too." Yugito pushed her away and held her at the shoulders so they could look into each other's eyes and so Fu could understand exactly what she was going to say next. "But don't use that sort of language. We _are_ going to make it out of here, one way or another. And we're all going back to that beach. And we're all going to be a family."

00000000

Temari took one last deep breath and plopped down on her ass, laying the fan on the cold ground next to her so she could recline back and close her eyes. "Man, you guys give up a hell of a fight, don't you?"

"We try our best, don't we?" Her father replied, his eyes blackened and dead, not that she could see them. He was encased head to toe in linen wrappings with a special black mark in the middle that chained around the whole thing, keeping him, thankfully, in place. The only thing sticking out of the whole thing was his mouth, letting him talk to his only daughter.

"I did at least. Though I'm definitely not as powerful without the power of Shukaku aiding me," Her little brother said back to her, much in the same position as his father.

Kankuro sat down next to Temari as well, his puppets well and truly spent and depleted. Without them backing him up, he looked defeated and small. Or maybe that was just because it was hard for him to draw his gaze upwards at the other half of his family. The half that didn't make it.

"And here I thought I did pretty damn well against you. I guess I've still got room to grow then, huh?" Temari said with a small chuckle at the end. It had been a hard fight, especially against the two of them. She had only triumphed because Kankuro was still in fighting shape after Sasuke bolted. That, and they had help from Jiraiya and a member of the sealing corps of hidden sand who thankfully tagged along. All in all though, she was pretty proud they managed to take down both her brother and her father with their comparatively meager force.

Gaara smiled, his cracked skin shifting about to make room for that expression of joviality. There was an undercurrent of emotion in his words. "We all have room to grow. But you _have_ grown strong. Not just in body or with jutsu. But your composure as well. And your spirit. And your character. I am… so proud of what you've done." His voice became as cracked as his skin. "I'm sorry for leaving you. I couldn't protect you."

Temari's eyes started to stream hot tears. As soon as she saw her brother and father, she didn't know when she was going to cry, just that it absolutely was going to happen. She also knew that she couldn't let him know that she was. He had to know that she was going to be okay. "You moron. I'm your big sister. I was the one who was supposed to protect you. _I_ failed."

She could see him grit his teeth and clench his jaw.

"You don't have to worry," she said as soothingly as she could. "I'm fine on my own. _We're_ fine on our own. Right Kankuro?"

He nodded and said "Right," past the tears on his face, past the sadness in his throat.

Gaara's head pitched forward slightly, against the linen wrapping. She had a feeling he'd be hanging his head if that was possible. "I wish I could have stayed with you two longer," he said. "It was just starting to get nice too. But you're right. You will be fine on your own. I have faith in you two."

Temari and Kankuro smiled, despite everything that had happened, they could at least all smile together.

"Oh, and by the way, how's the whole thing with Naruto shaping up?" Gaara asked with a surprisingly normal tone of voice.

Temari's head perked up, confusion evident in her eyes. "Wha?"

"I'm guessing it didn't work out and you got a divorce. It makes sense. I _did_ make the executive decision after all…"

Temari's brow lowered. "What? No! I love him. And he loves me. We're… we're happy together."

"Wait, what's this I hear about my daughter getting married?" Her father burst in, sounding much more protective now than in life.

Temari narrowed her eyes at him and let an annoyed breath of air from her lips.

"Oh, okay. I get it. I wasn't a good dad. One of the worst in fact. But I had my reasons for acting that way. And I also have my reasons for wondering why you're married at such an early age!"

"Do you even know how old I am?" she asked.

"…What year is it?"

"You don't get the year. You guess."

He waited a for moment, the air becoming lagged down with an awkward silence. "16," he finally said.

"20."

"That's still too young to be getting married. And what's this I hear about it not being your own choice?"

"There was the option for her to be part of a historic political marriage," Gaara replied. "So I put her up for it. Turns out there were four other marriage offers for the same person by the end of it, and we all went with it. Turns out I might have started world peace."

The man was shocked silent for a moment or two. "I didn't know you liked jokes, Gaara."

"I don't dislike jokes in and of themselves. I'm not too clever to make them up on my own though."

Kankuro leaned over next to Temari while the two of them started bickering. "This isn't how I imagined this would go," he whispered.

Her tears were still wet on her face and she was looking at a comedy act going on. "No, I didn't think so either."

It was nice though. She wondered if that was how things would have gone if she had a normal family that bickered over normal things. It's not what she was used to.

She took a deep breath and hoisted herself up by her battle fan. "It's been nice," she said. "And I wish I could talk to you a little bit longer. But the fate of the world is still ticking down and I've got a duty to the people who depend on me. We both do. Any last words before you're sealed for good?"

Her father was the first to react. "I didn't do you right when I was alive. But I'm happy and proud of what you all have become."

"Things didn't go as planned, but I'm happy that they've worked out like they have," Gaara said before giving one last smile. "Now go on, save the world."

The two dead members of a broken family started glowing a bright white while the two living members walked away from them. As they passed back into the afterlife, Kankuro nudged Temari's shoulder. "What now?"

"Now? Now we have to go find the man with the swirled mask."

00000000

Kurama looked out through the iron bars of his cage past the mindscape, past the chakra system, past the body itself, and looked through the kid's eyes. He was talking to the woman in blue. Mei, he thought her name was. It was hard though. He didn't really keep track of most of everyone's names. Until then, he'd really only thought to remember his siblings' names and the odd human that managed to differentiate themselves from the herd.

And now, he had the boy. And even that was pushing it.

There was still a sea of hatred that roiled and boiled and tormented Kurama in his gut, calling for blood and retribution and vengeance. But there was also something tempering that call. He'd already given the world so many chances to show its true colors to the point where he had stopped thinking that the colors he'd been shown could be anything but the truth.

And he still thought he was right in that. The world was ugly and terrible and existed only to create good things so as to crush them moments later. He'd been trapped and tortured and left to rot. That's what the world showed him.

No, the boy wasn't doing what he thought he was doing. He wasn't showing Kurama the true colors of the world. He was showing that it could be changed. That the cycle could be broken, this time for good. That, with effort and hard work, there might not be a need for fear anymore. At least not unjust fear.

'Hey Kurama!' Naruto shouted from his consciousness.

Kurama made a show of rumbling in his cage. **"Yeah, kid?"**

'What do you think?'

" **What do I think about what?"**

'Have you not been listening?' Naruto asked frantically.

" **What do you think I am?"**

'I guess now you're someone who only intermittently listens in on my conversations, as opposed to all the time.'

" **Intermittent? That's a big word. Did your-"**

'Yes, my wife from sand is rubbing off on me. Get a new joke.'

" **I think it's funny."**

'And I'm glad. But things are going sideways and I need your help.'

Help, huh? Did he really owe them help? Did they do anything to deserve him helping them? They, who have shown him only grief?

He remembered the look in the kid's eyes as he walked through the cage and wrapped his little body around his wrist.

Perhaps it wasn't only grief he had been shown.

" **What do you need?"**

00000000

The familiar orange-yellow chakra flames flared up all over his body, adding to the sage chakra he was using. A cape similar to the one his dad used to wear materialized over his shoulders. He took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes, expanding his view of the world around him so that it took everything possible into it.

Mei looked at it happen with wide eyes. Looking at it made her feel foolish. Perhaps that wasn't the best word to describe it. Clearly, and without any room for argument, she shouldn't have doubted his abilities. She should have believed in the power he was capable of. But now that he was here, with her, looking straight ahead at the end of it all and racing forwards despite that… things had been upended somewhat for her. He wasn't the quick-mouthed, energetic, bull-aheading sort of person anymore. He'd been changing bit by bit right by her side for months now and she was only just seeing the change at the other end.

She couldn't treat him like a kid anymore. He was just as effective as she was. And not even necessarily strictly in the sense that he could turn the tide in battle. That look on his face; He was thinking. Not just in the sense that people normally think, but in the way that a seasoned chess player thought ahead, looked at the whole board, and came to conclusions that were best for the entire strategy. But there was also worry and franticness in his voice and his movements. He thought ahead, put faith where it should go, and still worried for the sake of other people all in frame of time.

No, he wasn't a kid anymore.

But what did that make her? For three seconds a sort of self-consciousness enveloped her and halted her speech and thought patterns. She was a peer to him; They were equals. She couldn't be the kind woman who held his hand through bad things anymore, they had to trudge through those things together. Her supporting him and him supporting her. But was that good?

No, not good or bad. It was just different. Different in a startling and scary way that she didn't know she was still capable of feeling. If they were peers, did he really need her anymore? What could she do? If she was capable in that moment of extreme self-consciousness of even a morsel of self-reflection, she might have realized the irony in her, one of the strongest shinobi on the continent, of being worried of being rejected by her former young charge.

What could she do?

A lot.

Who did she want to do those things for?

She'd gone through a whole lot of pain and suffering and did horrible things and horrible things had been done to her. And she did them for the people who were suffering. She did them and was subjected to them to make a better future, to protect. She did it because it was, in fact, the right thing for her to do.

She did those things and was subjected to those things for the people who couldn't do it themselves and for the people she loved. Naruto used to fit into both those categories and now he only fit in the latter.

What could she do?

A whole lot.

His eyes opened and looked across the castle directly at a wall. He was seeing something that she couldn't. He looked to the other two people sharing a space with him, Sakura and Kakashi, and pointed to where he'd been looking. "He's over there."

Sakura's lips pressed into a thin line and her fingers clenched into fists while Kakashi got an even more morose demeanor. They were looking for their long-lost teammate. It made sense for their tension to be at their peak. Mei didn't belong with them as they were off to confront him. Like a tag-along to a family get-together.

But she had no idea what he was capable of and the most pressing thing she needed to do, finding the man with the swirled mask, wasn't something she was outfitted to find. It might do her good to find Chojuro or Ao.

Naruto turned to Mei. Worry ate at him. Nervousness clutched his heart. And he didn't know what might happen next. He still smiled though. "I don't know how he's changed. I might need your help."

Mei smiled a little bit. "You're damn right."


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Kurotsuchi shot up awake, eyes wide to the open air and her skin immediately freezing from the intense cold. She took in oxygen like she had just sprinted a marathon and looked all around, trying to take in the world around her. A world unlike the one she had nearly died to. The entire castle that was supposed to be above her head was exploded outward and down, practically pinning her to the ground. The only thing that kept her from being turned into a pancake was a white and blue oversized slug covering her from the waist down. There was an open hole in her combat shirt from where she'd been pierced from her own blade and a tear in the middle showed a wide, ugly scar from her fight with the Uchiha.

"Stay down. You're in no condition to move around," Came the soft, feminine voice of the slug on top of her. She recognized it as Katsuyu, Tsunade's summon. "You're lucky I found you when I did. You were almost dead."

She finally caught her breath and started swiping the thick layer of slime over her skin off her body as quickly as she could. The cold air made it feel like she was covered in ice. "W-What happened?"

"Lay down and rest. You can't go back to the fight."

Her eyes went wide and she looked all around her general area. "Where is it?" She asked frantically.

"What are you looking for?"

"My sword! Where is it? It was… It was…" It was in her. Pierced through the chest, near the heart. And now it wasn't. She looked at Katsuyu more intensely. The hilt of her sword was poking out of its side, probably kept for safekeeping.

Kurotsuchi grabbed the hilt and pulled it out with a wet schlick, then started scrambling to unearth herself from the white and blue slug. It started to protest against her actions, but she paid it no heed. She slapped her hands against he ground and slabs of earth rose up to push the rubble off her body. The girl stood and stretched her muscles and immediately regretted her decision. It was like someone drenched her insides with spirits and threw a giant fireball in the middle for good measure. Her muscles cramped and every foot of viscera in her gut protested.

She still stood, though.

"Where are they?" She asked, surprised by the rasp in her voice. How long had she been out? Hours? Days? Who was still alive?

Oh no.

"Where is he?!" She shouted at the summon, climbing up to the top her rubble tower. Her heart sank at what she saw. A wasteland of rubble and broken architecture pockmarked with pools of bile lava and acid. Swamped with water, lit on fire. A cloudy sky with spires of lightning reaching down to the ground every other second off in the distance. A few miles away she could see a giant horror, one eye, one ear, one mouth, many hands, the size of a mountain. The ten-tails, unknown to her.

"W-Who? Wait, no. Get back down. You're not completely fixed."

"I'm fixed enough," she growled out, grabbing a hold of the cold stone and jumping off. Every step she took was an earthquake of pain in her torso.

She still walked, though.

She still ran.

The sounds of the summon protesting her actions was lost to the whistling wind as she navigated the wasteland spread before her. She had to find him. Make sure he was okay. He needed to know. She couldn't die with him not knowing. He couldn't die not knowing. If there was anything in the world that had a just bone, it would give this to her. It had already taken her mom and her freedom, and then gave her him with its own cruel sense of humor. And it also gave her everyone else.

The world gave and the world took and she was starting to understand that. Right then. With the air chilling her skin to ice and her body shouting to her to stop, lay down, rest. She understood. But it wasn't enough. She would have to be greedy for just a little bit. Just a little bit.

She climbed over the crest of another part of rubble and looked at another, strangely colored mountain in front of her. Purple and orange and broken apart at weird, odd angles. It took her a few seconds of puzzling to realize it was the discarded exoskeleton of Chomei. Her heart sank when the thoughts of Fu's lifeless body being stuck inside, but she quickly steeled herself with the knowledge that it might simply be armor she had discarded during a fight.

She could still be alive.

But for right now, the armor was a impediment to her progress. And she had to walk through it.

At first, she was able to jump over it majorly from the help of an earthen wall she used for momentum. But she wasn't able to manipulate the discarded remains like she could earth, and her feet wouldn't stick to the material no matter how much chakra she applied to her feet. She had to climb the rest of the way like a mountain climber.

It gave her time to think about things. And also time to struggle against a familiar yet completely unknown foe: climbing.

The thought that Fu might be dead and that she was climbing over her body underneath a giant layer of purple and orange monster made her heart sink. Turmoil from physical damage and emotional damage were working their way through her torso and gut. She needed to puke, but she knew that if she did, she would be rendered weak enough as to not be able to move forward even one more step, even one more pull of the body, even one more sweeping view of the hellscape around her.

Tears pricked at her eyes.

Fu had to be alive. If _she_ was left alive and Fu was the one who died, then nothing mattered. That girl, such a bundle of happiness and joy, always looking forward to life despite her surroundings, always smiling and struggling for a better life; a better way forward; a better laugh; a better everything. And what was she in comparison? Mean and foulmouthed and sour. If she was left and Fu was taken, then the world surely didn't need to exist.

Kurotsuchi finally pulled herself over the tallest part of Fu's body and started sliding a convenient ridge to the ground. Off in the distance, the thing that towered over everything was starting to be obscured from fog. Flashes of explosions lit up its towering silhouette for brief moments. There was still struggle. There was still conflict. There was still a chance.

A chance.

That's all she needed.

As she moved, her body began learning its place. She was the one in charge, not it. It could complain, but it needed to obey. And so it did.

She came to a crater made by an explosion greater than she would have thought theoretically possible. And she had known the mad bomber of Iwa on a first name basis. At the epicenter, instead of smooth, black rock, there was an irregular shape that she could have sworn twitched in the slightest of amounts. It was on the way to the giant thing, so she shuffled to its direction.

Could be an enemy.

Could be an ally.

It was a risk she was going to take.

As she got closer and closer, she realized that the irregular shape was oblong and of a different texture to everything else around it. Closer still and a form of relief flowed over her. A piece of Katsuyu that had been covered in soot and dust. Poking out of its body was a shock of dirty blond hair and a hand gripped tightly around a piece of orange cloth.

"Is it Yugito?" Kurotsuchi choked out.

The clone of Katsuyu noticed her presence and shivered from the outside stimulation. "It is Yugito. She is in critical condition. Most of Matatabi has been taken from her."

"Is she going to live?" Kurotsuchi asked desperately.

"For now. But she could expire within hours if the tailed beast is not returned to her. Her chakra system has become too dependent on it."

"Wh-What about…" Kurotsuchi shook her head to clear her thoughts. She looked at the monolith that Fu left behind. "What about Fu? Is she okay?"

"Something similar happened, but I don't know her whereabouts."

"Can you… Can you slugs communicate with each other? Has anyone seen her?"

"We can, but there is a dead zone where the fighting is happening. Also, we haven't confirmed a body. There may be hope, but the possibility that she's dead is not small."

Kurotsuchi gulped and took in a few deep breaths. "It'll have to do," she muttered before taking off to where the fighting was heaviest. Katsuyu protested in much the same way, but Kurotsuchi didn't have the heart to listen to it.

Yugito.

Awkward and jilted and smart and strong and arrogant. That's the person Kurotsuchi first met and kind of hated. Now, she was kind and serene and accepting… and also still pretty awkward. But it was more endearing now. It was easier to love her. She wanted to continue being with her, poking fun at the woman where she could and laughing together when one of them says something funny. She wanted to argue with her and cry with her and laugh with her.

That one needed to live too.

Pools of acid and lava beckoned to her next. The fighting with the big thing was getting more heated too if the inclusion of other giant titans was of any indication. And so she walked. She needed to get there. She needed to talk to him, even shout out at him while he fought. She wasn't any use on the battlefield, but she still needed to be there.

On her way across the pools of waste, she came across a person wearing a familiar blue dress sitting on a chair of her own making, appearing to the world a corpse.

Mei.

Kurotsuchi grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her frantically, fearing the worst. When the woman startled up out of her trance and started swinging at invisible enemies, she felt a little bit stupid for thinking that anything could take Mei out. Nice when she needed to be. Mean when it was required. Always wise. Always smiling, even if the smiles were rarely genuine.

When their eyes met, Mei put a hand to her chest and rocked her head back, letting out a shout of relief. "I was starting to worry for the worst when you didn't show up. You're always ready to throw punches."

"It's nice to see you too," Kurotsuchi said, leaning her body against the chair she made. "Out of chakra?"

"Just about," Mei said. "If there were conventional enemies, I might be of some use, but I won't be able to do anything against…" she paused and winced as a particularly large explosion blasted out from the main battlefield. "Well, you get the point. How's Yugito? I saw her explode."

"She's fine. There's a Katsuyu on her, but she needs Matatabi back quick. Did you see what happened to Fu?"

"Flying around, last I saw."

Kurotsuchi nodded. "Good. Temari?"

"Still fighting."

"…And…"

Mei looked up her. The woman looked downright exhausted. She was fresh out of fight, something Kurotsuchi didn't think she would ever run out of. But still, her face lit up a little bit. A smile struggled to overcome the exhaustion. "He's fine," she said. "He's… well, he's him."

Kurotsuchi's lips pressed to a thin line. She nodded, having expected that. Somehow she knew that the world would change by his actions as a way of tipping the scales.

"I need to… I need to talk to him."

Mei smiled knowingly. "Time's short, you know. And not to be rude, but there's not much you can do over there. Care to take a message?"

Kurotsuchi shook her head resolutely. Absolutely not. It was a long time coming and she needed to do it herself. No one else. "Are you in love with him?" Kurotsuchi asked, almost shocking herself with her forwardness.

Mei smiled like she'd been asked to recount a story from the past. "Who knows?" she said with a shrug. "Little bit of advice from old to young? We're not as in control as you think we are. And your emotions are almost never going to appear straight-forward. So if you have a glimmer of true, absolute knowledge of what you want… fucking tell him."

Kurotsuchi smiled a little bit, feeling a bit more at ease. She didn't know if she would live to see tomorrow, but she knew that if tomorrow wouldn't come, her world would be put to peace at the very least. "Thanks. And don't worry, I know."

The woman gave her a thumbs up and smiled before closing her eyes and letting her head fall back, relaxed.

One last stretch to go.

Rather than the destruction making the ground under the giant sink low, it created huge crests of earth, ice, and rock that pushed out from around it. She could climb it, but her chakra levels were faltering. She might have to freeclimb the last portion.

And then, like a bullet shot through fog, a person was forcibly ejected from the fight many meters above the crests. Luckily, the person unfolded a fan and was able to glide to the ground. Having spotted her, Temari glided to where Kurotsuchi was. "You're alive?" Temari asked, equal parts relief and surprise. "You're always ready to throw punches, so when…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kurotsuchi said, interrupting her. "I got it. Think we're gonna win?"

Temari shrugged. "A lot of stuff is happening and I don't understand half of it. But we're still fighting, so we have a chance." The leader of hidden sand appraised her more fully. "You're not thinking of heading up there, are you?"

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "You know me… I don't make the best decisions."

Temari's shoulders sagged. "You'll probably die."

"I need to talk to him. Just ten seconds will do."

Temari bit her cheek and nodded, more to herself than to Kurotsuchi. "Okay. I understand that. A little bit. Actually, not much at all, but I know you'll do it even if I don't help you. There's a bit of a pow wow going on right now, so you just might get your chance. Get up there and get out as soon as you can."

Before Kurotsuchi could question Temari's methods, the girl from sand already unfolded her fan, braced it backwards, and created an air vacuum that shot her upwards like an air cannon. She didn't even have the air in her lungs to scream from fright and surprise. What she did hear was Temari yelling after her "I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Stoic, headstrong, also just strong, smart, kind, a little bit distant.

And a good friend.

Kurotsuchi scrambled at the lip and slid down the earthen gravel. Ahead of her was a scene she wouldn't be able to describe with words, but it didn't really matter because she didn't really pay it much mind. Directly in her path of sliding downwards was a group of people. Some glowing from an unknown force, some frantically talking, some eyeing the scene ahead of them.

She came to a stop in front of them and scanned their faces for a shock of yellow, whisker marks, and maybe an orange jumpsuit, but the one most similar to her husband was a guy made of glowing orangish yellow energy. Weird eyes, blocks instead of lines for whisker marks, utterly surprised to see her.

"Kurotsuchi!?" he exclaimed.

Yup.

That was him.

She hated him at first. She really did. Ignorant and stupid and brash and he pranked her. He fucking pranked her. Annoying laugh, childish attitude, poor disposition.

Bit by bit, he turned her eyes around, though. Kind, infectious laughter, stubborn, headstrong, dearly caring, always doing his best, not bad to look at either.

And his dad killed her mom. Not his fault, but it still stung. Any semblance of a normal life was taken from her by his dad. But she didn't want that normal. Not anymore. He _was_ her normal. She worried about him, wondered about him, and her heart fluttered for him.

She walked forward, her legs jelly and her voice caught by her throat.

She had to tell him.

She had to.

Had to.

He rushed forward and wrapped an arm around her side to stabilize her. "You shouldn't be here. You're hurt."

She looked up at him and brought her other hand to his cheek. He was unrecognizable, but nothing had changed. Nothing that mattered anyway.

"I'm happy that I was forced to marry you. I'm in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Everyone speaking or murmuring fell silent at the sound of her voice speaking those grand, unstoppable words. "I don't know how you feel, or even if there's going to be a tomorrow, but whatever I'm feeling is real. And you need to know it."

He smiled a little bit and arched a brow. "Did you think I didn't love you? Go, sit down, get some rest. We're going to get through this. We're a family."

He kneeled down and let her fall on her back on the hard ground.

She had done it.

She had told the boy she loved that she was in love with him and he reciprocated those feelings. Such a simple thing made her world. It was…

Great.

Truly wonderful.

And nobody could take that away from her.

One by one, memories her time together with all of them flashed through her mind. The good and the bad and the in between. She remembered all of them. And tears came to her eyes, flowing down her cheeks and wetting the cold rock. And she didn't know why the tears were there. Was she happy? Sad? Angry? Distraught.

Regardless, she was part of a family now. Hell, she always was, but now she knew she was. She could say 'I love you, have a good day', 'do your best', 'I'll be home waiting for you' without anyone looking at her odd.

She could sleep with her arms wrapped around someone she loved.

She could eat a groggy breakfast before bidding her family goodbye.

She could have kids.

She could go to a big, boisterous dinner.

Those things were nice, sure, she didn't disagree. But more than anything, she wanted there to be another tomorrow. Just one more. And the words he spoke gave her hope that there would be one.

World peace? Who gave a shit about that?

Her world was peace. And that was good enough for her.

00000000

Sometime later

Naruto finally had a chance to rest. Completely exhausted from the duties of the day. Full schedule ahead with no signs of it stopping.

But it didn't matter.

He smiled.

 **The end.**


	30. epilogue

Epilogue

Kiba raised a hand to stop the blond from talking a single word more. The other hand was being used to pinch the bridge of his nose to stem the headache from overtaking every fiber of his being. "Hold up man, you've gotta lay it out for me better."

He was back in hidden leaf for the first time in what felt like years, but was actually only months. Not a lot had changed and not that many people heard the news that the world was saved… or even in danger in the first place. The two of them were in the middle of the street, right outside kage administration.

Naruto closed his mouth and gave the dog boy a big, toothy grin. "What's up man?"

The dog boy in question bent his legs a little bit and gently lowered his hands until he was staring at the palms. "…So, I know you got married off to five other chicks. I got that from that big announcement a few months. And I also know you went off with them to announce at the other major villages too, that makes sense. But… I just… What happened?"

Naruto shrugged, looking to the ground and to the side. "Well… we all hated each other at first and that wasn't too cool, but we all bonded as the days went on."

Kiba swirled his hand around, nodding. "Yeah, yeah, I got that. You and your magical ability to make friends with just about everybody and all that. Makes sense… But!"

Naruto held out his closed fist and stuck out one finger. "I fell in love with Temari in a way that's a bit hard to describe." He stuck out two fingers. "Fu was in love with me for a while and was okay with sharing, and Temari decided that she was okay with it too." He stuck out three fingers. "I fell in love with Yugito next, who was also okay with sharing." He stuck out four fingers. "Then Kurotsuchi, who I fell in love with at first, confessed, and now she's part of it all too."

Kiba looked like he had his soul sucked from him. He sighed, putting a hand to his head. "I guess I shoulda expected that. What about the last one? Wasn't she, like, thirty?"

A hand encircled around Kiba's shoulder like a vice. A palpable killing intent overflowed from behind him and threatened to drive him mad. "Who's thirty now, dog boy?" Mei asked serenely from behind him.

"You are, Mei," Naruto said, quirking an eyebrow with his arms crossed over his chest. Kiba whimpered slightly when Mei withdrew her hand and slowly walked to Naruto's side.

"I know, loverboy, I'm just teasing," she said, wrapping an arm around his back in a flirtatious way.

Kiba pointed a finger at Naruto and then Mei, looking like he'd just seen a ghost. "W-Wait, hold up. Her too? How old are you again?"

"She's just teasing," Naruto said, patting her on the back twice. She smiled like the world were made of roses and walked off.

"See you, darling," she said enticingly as she left.

"Mei's on her way to talk with the other kage," Naruto explained to a dumbfounded Kiba. "And no… we're not in that sort of relationship… yet."

"Yet."

Naruto nodded. "Maybe in the future. But I'm also happy where we are right now and she is too."

Kiba let out a breath of air slowly. "Okay. Cool. But that's not the biggest part of your goddamn story. What about the whole thing with saving the world?"

Naruto shrugged. "I mean, yeah, that was important and it did happen, but it's not like…" Naruto struggled for words for a little bit. "It's not like I was doing it because I wanted to save the world or anything, if that makes sense. I was just doing what I could and it kinda fell on me in the end. Honestly, I'm just glad we all made it through unscathed. Most of us, that is."

Kiba clicked his tongue. "Shit man, you're unbelievable. Why aren't you with them right now?"

Naruto put out his fist again and numbered them off. "Kurotsuchi's in rock with her dad. Fu's in waterfall getting her things. Yugito's in lightning saying goodbye to everyone. And Temari and Mei are at the meeting. I had some free time, so I decided I might as well catch up with everyone. And here we are. Where's Akamaru, by the way? You're usually inseparable."

"At the vet," Kiba murmured, hand to his mouth where he was biting his thumb. "Nobody's going to believe this… hold up, are you… staying here? You've got five wives that all live in different countries. How's the home situation going to work?"

"I'm going to try to see if I can't get somewhere on the border of here and water. Forests, mountains, and beaches. Now that's a place to stay."

"Didn't you want to become Hokage?"

Naruto looked to the side and bit his thumb slightly, much like Kiba. "I wanted a family and recognition and saw Hokage as the best way to get those things. But now I have a family and recognition doesn't really factor into anything. Maybe if I'm the best candidate for it, and everyone agrees it's for the best. Otherwise, I might just live with them."

"Like a housewife?" Kiba asked, brow cocked.

Naruto shrugged. "Hey, there's four of them and only one of me. I'm not sure if I'll have enough time in the day for work."

"Oooh, that was…" Kiba squeezed his eyes closed and recoiled away from the information slightly. "A little bit too much information."

Naruto's straight face broke and laughter bubbled out, causing Kiba to break out somewhat as well.

It was nice to be back.

"You know," Kiba said. "I'm not sure how into the idea of sharing you with five other chicks would be to Hinata, but you might want to talk to her and see how it might play out."

Naruto's eyebrows scrunched. "What are you talking about?"

Kiba blinked a few times. "Did you really not know?"

"Know what?"

"That Hinata has been in love with you since she was, like, eight."

Naruto was struck almost speechless. "Uhm… no, I didn't know that. Hold up, you're not joking with me, are you?"

And then, almost like there was divine providence in the world, the doors to kage administration opened and the five kages plus one Hinata Hyuuga poured out. Temari and Mei had an almost apologetic look on their faces, while Tsunade was grinning like a demon about to get her comeuppance, and Ai, Onoki, and Shibuki all were grinning ear to ear. In Hinata's hand was a piece of paper fluttering in the wind and she looked like she just won the lottery.

"Hey, Naruto, what a surprise meeting you here," Tsunade greeted like a demon. "Good news comes in sextuplets, you know. Say hello to your sixth wife," Tsunade nudged Hinata forward and she floated over to Naruto's side.

While he remained somewhat speechless, Tsunade decided to explain the backstory to him. "There was a lot of conflict in Konoha after your exit with everyone else and I was stuck here trying to deal with it for the longest time. Though… it turns out there was another contract your father signed with the head of the Hyuuga. A contract perfect for alleviating the civil conflict brewing. It didn't specify Hinata, but it had to be either her or her sister, as they were from the main family, and she so valiantly put herself forward to save her little sibling from being stuck in a loveless marriage. So… congratulations!"

Naruto looked to Temari and Mei for saving, but they only had conciliatory looks to give him. "Things _were_ getting out of control," Temari said.

"And things were just getting settled when I got there," Mei admitted.

"Y-You're all okay with this?" Naruto asked.

"Please, I've had to come to terms with worse," Temari said. "If it helps save the world… And it turns out she was harboring wood for you, so… why not?"

Naruto looked over at Hinata, whose face was turning from red to purple at an alarming rate. "Hey, are you… can we talk privately about this?"

Whether she heard or not was anyone's guess. How she was still standing was also up for debate. She was there, but the embarrassment might as well have made her dead to the world.

"Christ," Naruto said, putting his face in his hands. "The others are going to kill me. Wait, hold up. They aren't going to kill me," he pointed at Mei and Temari "You're the ones who decided this!"

He looked over to Kiba for support, but the dog boy was currently doubled over on the ground with both hands over his mouth, shuddering from laughter he couldn't vocalize.

Temari and Mei flanked him, each grabbed a hand, and started leading him to a supposedly more safe place with Hinata in tow, having been grabbed by Mei.

"Come on loverboy, no rest for the weary."

"Is your plan of action for keeping the world at peace just to marry me off to greater numbers of women throughout the years?" Naruto asked.

"Keep an attitude like that and we just might consider it," Temari said, doing her best to lighten the mood.

Naruto sighed. "On to the next adventure, I guess."


End file.
